


No Story Stands Alone

by VigoGrimborne



Series: The IHTR Universe [4]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: AUs, Collection of Short Works Related to the IHTR Universe, Deleted Scenes, Extra Scenes in Canon, Rating May Change, Rating Varies By Chapter, Short Stories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:22:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 209,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24629239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigoGrimborne/pseuds/VigoGrimborne
Summary: This is a collection of one-shots, short stories, and alternate perspectives all based in the universe created by the story Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, and its various sequels. So, in case it's not clear, new readers won't want to start with this one. No set genre or main characters, as it focuses on whatever genre and character I want to write about.
Relationships: Read The Rest Of The Series To Find Out Because I Am Not Spoiling Them Here
Series: The IHTR Universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779493
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Second - Memories (EC)

**No Story Stands Alone. In this case, I am not referring to the 'story' as in any of the other books I have written so much as the 'story' of any given character. No man is an island, and even if he was, the current and weather would shape him regardless. So it feels with all that I write. There is** _**always** _ **more we don't get to see or explore, for one reason or another. Maybe it would spoil something later on, or maybe it's not important, or maybe I don't actually know the details of something I myself implied. For whatever reason, these smaller stories that support the main story remain untold.**

**Until now. Specifically, until now in the universe created by the story** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities.** _ **In that universe, there are quite a few characters, OC and canon twisted by the story itself, and we know very little about most of them. Ideas, outlines, maybe even who they are as people, but nowhere near everything. There are stories there, stories I wanted to write but kept out to make sure the narrative in IHTR and its sequels remained focused. This anthology is a collection of those stories. Snippets of the past, present, and even, in a few cases, future. These chapters were not written in any sort of chronological order, and more so are not even going to be posted in the order I wrote them. They're also not all done, and this is one story I can't totally pre-write (I do have about ten totally written, though, so I've got a backlog).**

**This, of course, brings up the issue of spoiling my own past works, which** _**every chapter** _ **will do to some degree. That is why every chapter will begin with a notice of how far one should read in the universe this resides alongside so as to not be spoiled there. There's an example down under this massive Author's Note.**

**As yet another consequence of what this collection is, updates will not come regularly. Rather, I will write entries when inspiration and time coincide, and will post them as soon as they are both done and not capable of spoiling anything not yet posted (some of the chapters I've already done can't be published for a very long time, for instance, because they spoil events in** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **, which we have yet to get to).**

**Also, a quick explanation of chapter titles. The little abbreviations beside the actual title designate which type of story each one is. We have:**

**(EC): Extra Canon. Anything that's canon, but not in the main stories. Like this chapter.**

**(DS): Deleted Scene: Something that was at some point meant to be canon, but then scrapped. Not canon now, but shown here because I liked the idea. These will be of lower quality for obvious reasons.**

**(AU): Alternate Universe: The most obvious of the types, these will be AUs of my own story, which is in itself an AU of canon. AU-ception! An example of what I mean in this case is the last chapter of _Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities_. That sort of thing is what I mean. Some will be longer than a single chapter, and some will be one-shots.**

**Okay, got all of that out of the way. And of course, I'm not going to leave this chapter all one huge author's note without content. (That's actually against the site's rules, for one thing.)**

**Please, enjoy the first entry to this anthology.**

**O-O-O-O-O**

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains.** _

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is a short one, one that for a while eluded me, simply because I did not have a device to convey things, something I really like to have when writing little things like this. The one I chose to single out events in Second's terrible life ended up being a pretty weird one, but I like it, and it fits him better than even I suspected. It's not long, and not as intricate or detailed as I could make it, but that's intentional; this is also me defining something I might otherwise be tempted to expand beyond all reason. (And yes, there _is_ actually such a thing as too much expansion or expansion in the wrong directions. Especially when I have too many things to write as it is.)**

**Also, a note. One of these scenes is going to be pretty dark. As always, I'm not going to be explicit, but this is Second, and something he said in WNR basically forced me to add the scene listed under** _**Fifth** _ **. I can't exactly write this little entry without including that.**

* * *

Second. His name, his rank, his designation.

His existence, defined by a number. His whole life, as brutal and terrible as it was, could be defined and explained by numbers. He sometimes thought on that, usually when in the deepest throes of the weakness known as nostalgia, though from the little he knew, nostalgia was supposed to be directed at good memories.

He had none of those, and this was one such time. He had just added a new number to the list, and every time he added a new number, he went over the rest, in order. It was a small thing, a habit, a ceremony, whatever one chose to call it. He did not speak aloud or give any sign that he was awake at all. This was his, alone in his life. A weakness nobody else would ever know, one he knew he had to discard sooner or later. One he forgot for season-cycles on end, and then randomly remembered, something weak but persistent, never going away for good. He really did need to stop entirely.

But for now, he lay motionless in the depths of a dark ship, not alone, but alone in mind. A new number had been added. What of the rest?

O-O-O-O-O

 _Third_.

He remembered little of hatching. It was cold and dark, and there were no Dams or Sires to comfort and clean him or his twin brother. All of this was known in retrospect; all he recalled of that time was being cold and alone, except for the warm, small body beside him, the one as miserable as he was.

Then there was a jumble of bad memories. What he now knew to be a No-scaled-not-prey, one wearing scales that had mixed the smell of safety with the even then unmistakable scent of death, and the sound of words he could not understand. A cold, dark, angry presence that was almost, but not quite, around enough to care for them. Food was dropped to them from above, and they were always just cold enough to be uncomfortable.

But that was not what he had chosen to remember. His youth was a time as terrible as all the rest of his life, and less clear. He chose to remember his first clear memory, the one he had decided deserved to be remembered.

Alpha had come. He was around, watching from above, his odd face lurking above the scales known to be their Dam, but not. Power.

He watched them. Second, though he had not been given that or any name yet, watched the alpha carefully. He brought food, but he also brought pain and scorn.

Third, again devoid of any name at the time, had been huddling in a corner, as far from the alpha as possible. He growled wordless sounds of distrust.

Second, from what he recalled, had sensed something was different. The alpha was watching, waiting, expecting something. This was the first time anything had been expected of them but obedience.

What was it? Second could not recall his motivations back then; likely, given his age, they had been nonsense anyway. All he knew for sure was that he had approached Drago, warily but surely, and Drago had laughed, before pointing at him.

"Second."

Then he had pointed at Third. "Third."

At the time, Second had not understood. Later one, he knew that those were their names, and later still, he knew they were ranks, conferrable, changeable, not static. But that was later. This small, fragmented memory had been made the first on this list when he had come up with it.

Third. The name of his brother, now and as it turned out, forever. Spoken as if a condemnation. In retrospect, that was far more important than it seemed at the time.

O-O-O-O-O

_Second._

A new dragon, something he knew to be as dangerous as it was interesting. This dragon was large and bulky, and had been let into their pen. He and Third, for they knew their names by this point, had not even known what the other dragon was saying. They only learned the language of their own kind later, much later. For now, they were unable to hear whatever it was the Gronckle had said. Even now, Second didn't remember it clearly enough to even guess.

What mattered, the reason this stood out in his mind, the reason he had given it a number and remembered, was that the alpha, now present more often, had struck the Gronckle before throwing it down into their pen, bound and helpless.

Third hesitated, unsure of the entire situation. Second did not. He leaped and began clawing at the creature, failing to do much thanks to inexperience and a lack of size or weight to put to his advantage. Eventually it died, but that did not stop either him or Third, who had joined in soon after Second began, seeing that Second knew what was going on.

Drago descended into the pen, unafraid of them, and laughed victoriously. He pointed at Second. "Good. You are better. You are Second." Both Second and Third understood his words, knowing the language of No-scaled-not-prey better than their own.

"I'm better," Third growled angrily, glaring at Second, and then at the alpha.

"I am," Second countered, knowing that the alpha knew best. He was glad he was better.

"I will show him." Third leaped at Second, and they fought, spurred on by their alpha's terrible laughter. It was to be the first of uncountable fights waged nearly to the point of death, fights Third rarely won.

That was the day Second and Third had both learned their alpha had a favorite, and who it was. That was the day they had ceased working together on anything at all. From then on, they were enemies kept from killing each other by their alpha, and their desire to please him. Second wanted to keep his status as favored, and Third wanted to take it.

O-O-O-O-O

_Fifth._

A new test, one Second remembered far more clearly, because it had happened much later in his life. He and Third had fought, hated each other, and worked together under orders for season-cycles on end. They had learned the language of their own kind from being put with other dragons, and made to dominate them, not kill them, to become alphas of their own, but always under Drago. Betas, powerful but not their own masters. Drago wanted it that way, and he got what he wanted.

And now this. Drago ordered them into a room they both knew well by now, and they beheld two dragons tied to the ground.

This again. It was a new test, but only relatively. Neither he nor Third knew what they were to do. The dragons were already subdued, and there was nothing to order either captive to do. Freeing the previous dragons in the last version of this test had been the wrong answer; they both still bore the bruises and cuts from Drago's reaction to that.

Neither of them knew what was asked of them, and Drago did not tell them. He wanted them to figure it out and do it themselves, as he so often did. He _had_ the answer, but chose not to give it. They were to be extensions of his will, tools that acted on his behalf. That apparently meant knowing what he wanted without him even saying it.

Or maybe he didn't know he could tell them what to do. Second had long since understood that Drago did not realize he and Third had full command of both languages. It was nothing; the alpha could not be wrong.

This was the fifth time they had been faced with the same scenario. The only thing that changed was the dragons.

"What does alpha want here?" Third growled. "There is nothing we have not tried. Killing got us beaten. Subduing and commanding got us nothing. Freeing got us beaten. Waiting got us nothing."

Third was at the end of his very small supply of patience, to be talking to Second at all. They did not talk unless forced to coordinate or work together, which did not happen often.

"Don't ask me," Second snarled back. "Figure it out."

"This is stupid. You are stupid." Third growled.

Second ignored him, but only because the solution was not fighting each other. His alpha was a creature of simple wants. Power. Always power, over others and over them. Death was not the answer, and there was no need to do anything to subdue these dragons. Two Monstrous Nightmares, as the No-scaled-not-prey called them, both female, both thoroughly subdued, tied upside-down to the ground, flat on their back, every limb and extremity pulled aside by chain.

What more could their alpha want? What could they do that he would desire in this situation? These dragons were already his, so he did not want control. But he thought of power and control at all times, always seeking to expand it to new dragons or new No-scaled-not-prey. As they grew, he and Third had been educated in the fact that they were only two of many servants of the alpha, if the two highest at the moment. Second and third to the alpha himself.

Second walked up to the nearest prisoner, and looked her in the eye. She had heard them speaking of killing, so she was very much afraid. That was normal. Her mouth was muzzled, so there would be no information gained from her. Just an anxious, wordless whine.

"Why can't our alpha be doing more useful things with us?" Third complained. His recalcitrance was why he was always Third. The alpha could sense it, the small speck of self-serving selfishness Third possessed that Second did not.

Second fully expected to have to kill Third eventually. Their alpha was testing them, and he knew there was no love lost between them, siblings or not, twins almost identical in looks or not. Drago had created and fostered the divide, so he would know it existed still.

"He is teaching us something. There is nothing more useful," Second replied, defending the alpha. He knew best.

"Nothing more useful?" Third clawed at the flank of one of the Nightmares, idly inflicting pain as he spoke, probably doing it to prevent himself from attacking Second. He knew them fighting would just fail this test once more. "Our kind is dying out; all of the dragons say so. He should be taking females of our kind into his grip and fixing that with us. _That_ would be more useful."

"Females," Second repeated dully. The thought had crossed his mind, but any female of their kind would be just another rival, and Third was bad enough. He felt the urge; he was a newly adult dragon, so that made sense. But there were no females, and he did not need or want any to come and displace him.

"Yes, females," Third replied, getting visibly worked up. "Like these, but ones we can actually… use…"  
Something had occurred to Third. Second never liked it when that happened; he was not so secure in his place as to be content in letting Third do anything better, faster, stronger, or more intelligently.

"That would never work," Third muttered, glaring at one of the female Nightmares. "But alpha does not know that, and would not care." Without any further words, he jumped onto the torso of the female Nightmare closest to him, and after a few moments of watching what came next, Second knew what they were expected to do, though it would come to nothing in the end. Third was right, their alpha would not know that.

He did it anyway, tricking himself into being able to, and ignoring the muffled cries of protest beneath him. Whatever the alpha wanted would happen. He would not be displaced by Third.

It had taken them until the fifth test to realize what their alpha wanted most of them. And it had been Third to figure it out. That, too, was more important in retrospect. This was also the first time Second had knowingly done something all dragons decried as twisted and wrong, which made the event doubly important in his list. It would not be the last time, but it was the first.

O-O-O-O-O

_Eighth._

The sea was strong and rebellious on the day Third slipped away into the horizon. Second had seen it coming; his brother had grown frustrated with their alpha's inability to find them proper dark wing females, instead setting them on a never-ending parade of other kinds. It was frustrating, and Third had no patience, along with, for the first time in his life, a better plan in mind.

Second had not, on the other paw, planned to _let_ Third leave. Third had slipped away while he was busy. Second would have stopped and killed him for trying to leave, given the opportunity.

But their alpha, or now just his alpha, didn't know that. So he was beaten until he could barely stand, thrown into the smallest cage that would fit his body without suffocating or crushing him, and hauled to the deck of the alpha's largest ship. They sailed in pursuit of Third.

Second suffered for eight days and nights, out in the open, unfed and only watered by the intermittent rain. Third's fault. All Third's fault.

On the eighth day, Drago gave up and let him out of his cage. Second was entirely unable to stand, and tumbled forward only because his body was finally able to move at all. Drago's metal-toed boot rested in front of him.

"Going to try and leave?" Drago growled, looking down at him with those mind-piercing eyes.

They held that position for a long time.

"No," Drago eventually growled, speaking mockingly, his anger at Third's treachery obviously still strong and new. "Second is _loyal_." He lifted his boot up, as if preparing to stamp down right in front of Second's nose.

Second knew what was required of him. He slid his tortured body forward, sticking his head firmly under the boot.

"Second is loyal," Drago repeated to himself. "Time to start using you."

Eighth. The day of searching on which Drago forgave him for the crime of his brother. The day he was declared Second for good, or at least until another came to challenge him for the title. The day he knew Third would not be brought back, and thus was out of his life, perhaps for good.

A good day.

O-O-O-O-O

_Eleventh._

"Kill."  
Second didn't need to be told twice. He leaped at the frightened No-scaled-not-prey who had displeased his alpha, and tore them limb from limb. This was his first time fighting real, living, armed No-scaled-not-prey, and he took many injuries, but none of them could seriously wound him, and he had far more natural weapons than they did.

When he was done, dripping blood, both his own and not, he turned back to his alpha. The time of testing was officially over, but he knew a test when he saw one. Had he passed?

Drago pointed at one of the mangled, nigh-unrecognizable bodies. "Feed."

He knew that command too. He also knew dragons called them No-scaled- _not-prey_ for a reason.

But his alpha commanded him to do it, so he did. It helped that he had not been fed for several days leading up to this, but he would have done it anyway. He did more and worse for his alpha. Whatever was required of him. Unlike Third, Second was loyal.

O-O-O-O-O

All old memories, from long ago. Second glanced over at the occupant of the cage across the hall, the female dark wing sleeping uneasily, growling as she exhaled. A new number to add to the list.

_First._

The first he had known of her was a rare laugh of genuine approval from Drago, directed at the man who had just boarded his ship. "You did very well. We will speak later of payment; have it taken to my ship's brig and tied to the wall by the tail, as well as muzzled to prevent fire, but nothing else."

That was an odd set of commands. Second watched as a cage was brought up onto deck and then back below. It was draped with cloth, to prevent the dragon inside from seeing anything worth firing at.

Later that day, Drago sent him down to the brig with an enlightening instruction. "Mate."

That, he knew. So it was to be yet another helpless female of another kind of dragon. That gave him no joy. Nothing ever did, but that definitely did not. He would do it because it was required of him. Nothing more.

Then he had walked into the brig and saw her. She was spitting mad, looking to be about to dislocate her tail with her frenzied yanking on it, as it was secured to the wall, but definitely a dark wing, a blue and grey one.

So this was to be a true mating, then. Finally. He would be far less unhappy about this than what he had expected. It was still very, very wrong, as she would undoubtedly fight him and refuse to do anything willingly, but his alpha ordered, it, so-

Then her scent hit him. The scent he had not thought to smell ever again, weakened, mixed, but still there.

First. The first time he had ever disobeyed his alpha's orders, because he was better than Third, and this was Third's daughter.

O-O-O-O-O

Second shifted uneasily. He could not explain why he drew this line, only that he did, and could not break it. This was also Third's fault, for sure, and from this dark wing's words, Third's despicable act at work. Even away from their alpha, his brother was a monster, just as they had both been raised and trained to be.

But Second was loyal. He wouldn't do it, for his alpha's own sake. Drago would not want the twisted offspring of a male and said male's twin's daughter; that would do nothing but weaken the line.

That was wrong. He discarded that excuse. His alpha would want it, as something was better than nothing, but he could not do it. The line existed here, despite everything. He had not thought himself capable of drawing lines in his own actions when the alpha would have none but loyalty.

Second shifted uneasily, hating himself. Not taking Storm for a mate made him better than Third, but it also made him worse than Third. Not forcing himself upon family, but betraying the alpha. Those two things…

Were those equal? No, not at all, but he was making the trade anyway. This was the only time he would disobey his alpha.

Second was loyal. That, and his refusal to violate Storm, was all he had. But two good things were more than one, the one he had always held on to. Now there were two.

He almost wanted to thank Third for giving him another way to be better. But Third was dead. Too bad; Second would have liked to find him and dismember him in some suitably vindictive fashion. For Drago.

Second was loyal.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Nothing actually new there, aside from maybe seeing that Third's later actions and the motivation behind them was actually what drove him to leave Drago in the first place. I really just wanted to put all of Second's implied past in the same place, with enough vagueness that I can mess with a pre-Second Drago if need be. We still don't know how or even for sure when he lost the arm, or how he got the eggs, or the skin of their Dam… but it's all pretty firmly implied here and elsewhere.**

**Also, in case anyone is wondering, this entire entry is so sparse on details because Second is recalling it all. He's not a very descriptive person, and this isn't something he** _**wants** _ **to remember in every detail. Just the bare-bones meaning behind each thing.**


	2. Storm - Theft (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains.** _

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This one would have been the first of several AU-type entries. Well, really the second, as the first would be the alternate ending that occupies the last chapter of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities.** _ **I am, however, working this into canon in a way that also made writing it both less difficult and more interesting, so it's not an AU at all. You'll see what I mean.**

* * *

" _I will go myself to kill that no-good-fish-rot-alpha, and then I will steal every young dragon away if another alpha is selected. I will let the parents believe I killed their children, and I will not care, because I will have gotten them away and to somewhere, anywhere better. I will return every year and steal new eggs from those idiots until someone catches me and kills me. And even then, I will be happy, knowing that they will not look for their children, who will grow up somewhere better."_

O-O-O-O-O

The monster had come again, as it always did. There was no pattern, and no way to predict it. It flashed into being, dark and terrible, and stole.

It always stole. Eggs, hatchlings, even fledglings too small to escape it. Sometimes it hurt or even killed adults, but the theft was what it was known for, as that was what it came to do. Fighting and injuring or killing seemed to be secondary considerations for the monster.

She was afraid. She had grown up hearing fearful whispers of the monster, being told she was lucky to have made it to adulthood without being taken, lucky to have found a mate, even if he did die of sickness a single season-cycle later. Lucky to be around at all. Lucky was practically her name, at this point, but she did not feel lucky. Her pack was fading, dying, plagued by a creature that was somehow able to steal from them despite their best efforts. A creature that preyed on their young.

The other adults spoke of giving up. The alpha, a cowardly creature who was the fifth alpha in as many season-cycles, spoke of leaving, but they all suspected it would make no difference. The monster had followed them from their valley once before, a few season-cycles ago when she was a hatchling. It had not taken her, but many others had disappeared.

She was afraid. She was also mad. Everyone else was giving up, giving in. Some were still having more eggs, laboring under the idea that once there were no more children to steal, the monster might begin to target them. They sought to sacrifice their own young to it. Everyone else made no eggs, hoping the monster would stop persecuting them once they stopped providing food. They had all given up.

Not her. She answered to the name Lucky, and it was time for that name to actually apply. Her mate had died of sickness, she had no children, and her pack was failing, dying out because they could not keep enough hatchlings to replace the ones dying of old age or heartbreak or simple despair. Something needed to change, and it would take luck for that to happen.

She wanted her name to apply tonight. Lucky _felt_ lucky for once, even as the storm broke above the sadly empty valley, dropping cold water onto the rocks. Many rocks were abandoned, and only a precious few held true families, and not just pairs of sad mates who could not keep their children long enough to know them.

There were three eggs. Two were from pairs who thought to shield themselves from the monster by offering their offspring, and one was from a defiant, stubborn mated couple who would not give in. Lucky had made it her personal mission to watch over that last egg tonight, and every night.

But she had told no one about that. They all could see no way to stop it. Almost nobody even rose to bother trying to drive off the monster any longer. It simply flew down and took its prizes. Nobody could stop it, so nobody tried.

She could try. She could also fail, if her name failed her once more. The pack had been numerous and strong once, before she had hatched. They had tried, and they all failed. At first, according to her Dam, only one or two eggs disappeared every few months. But as time went on, more and more began to vanish as the monster somehow grew more and more adept at spiriting them away. Hatchlings began disappearing, and by the time Lucky's egg was laid, half of every generation disappeared… every season-cycle.

The pack had tried at the height of their strength, failed, and was now a shattered remnant of that past power. Lucky knew she was going to fail; her name was a sad joke, a commentary on just how far they had fallen, for surviving to adulthood to be so lucky she was named after it.

Lightning cracked in the sky; the hauntingly similar screech of the monster called out after it. The monster was a dark version of light wings, fierce and terrible. It always seemed to choose to come during storms, and was never seen in a clear sky, though the weather made no difference in how unstoppable it was.

Lucky watched as the monster swooped down and took the two eggs that were being freely offered, clawing at the Sires and Dams doing the offering. It flew low in the air for a short while, shrieking every so often, before rising up into the dark sky once more.

Her pack's spirit was broken. Nobody ever stopped the monster. It disappeared into the clouds and rain, but it was coming back. It always came back, as if it could sense there was still prey to be had.

Lucky could imagine what was happening. The monster would be swallowing those two eggs whole now, up above the clouds, unbothered by whatever feeble resistance her pack could mount. Then it would come back.

Here it came, diving down to land on the rock opposing the mated couple who openly defied it. They fired, but it barely flinched, somehow strong enough to shrug off the power of two light wing blasts. It was useless; nothing ever worked.

Lucky had a different plan. She was fast and agile. She was going to fly above the monster and try to grapple the egg out of its talons in a sneak attack. The egg might break; the monster might kill her. If she managed to take it, the monster would do its best to kill her and take the egg back. But she was going to try anyway.

She flamed herself and rose into the air, circling above the commotion. The monster was fighting both light wings now, a blur of dark grey and sickly blue striking at now bloodied and smudged white. The light wings were faltering, bleeding and pained, but unwilling to give in, while the monster remained uninjured and dangerous.

Lucky flew higher, planning her ambush. Nobody in her pack had fought back this hard since she was a hatchling; the monster might be a little off its game when it returned to the clouds. She would ambush it just as it entered, bite at its throat as a distraction, and grab for the eggs before letting gravity take over and fling her down, out of reach. If she was lucky, if her name came through, the egg would fall with her and she could catch it.

The monster was rising now, its prize clutched greedily in its claws, unharmed, unlike the defeated light wings lying on their rock in the middle of the storm, bleeding and hurt. Not dead, and probably not mortally wounded or even grounded, but the fight had been beaten out of them.

Lucky flew closer, knowing she wouldn't be seen unless someone was looking for her. She got a good look at the monster, something that was not uncommon, but also not spoken of. Nobody cared what the monster looked like up close, and nobody answered questions about it.

The first thing Lucky noticed was that the monster was female. That sickened her; she had envisioned a cruel male acting heedless of the pain he was causing, someone who did not value eggs because he did not have much of a part in making them. To see a female stealing and eating the life she might have been creating was terrible in a different way.

Lucky faltered, not sure if her plan was going to work. This female was not pristine but apparently unbothered by that, littered with scars and bulging with muscle, the absolute image of peak fighting condition.

In the time Lucky doubted herself, the female had gotten ahead, and was now into the clouds. Lucky followed doggedly, not announcing her presence in any way. They rose above the clouds in silence, flying through the storm and up to the place where it never struck, the place no light wing ever reached when the monster was around. Nobody tried to follow. There was nothing they could do.

But Lucky had followed. She was going to see the atrocity first-paw, and her plan of taking the egg back was worthless since she had hesitated and was now unable to get close.

Lucky and the monster broke through the dark, stormy layer of clouds. Above all of that, the sky was starry and… Blurry?

Lucky blinked, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Why was the sky blurry?

"Another season done," the monster growled in a coarse but decidedly feminine voice, speaking to the blurry air. "Someone take this. You all know your roles; let us complete this without complication."

Lucky felt the air wheeze out of her chest as one of the blurs so numerous she had thought the entire sky blurry took the egg from the monster's waiting paws. The egg floated away, a sight she could easily recognize.

But if that was one light wing, then there were so very many up here… and she was indistinguishable from them. She didn't act; her mind was too busy trying to process it all.

"We know our roles, but they are necessary no longer," a blur called out. "There is no fight left in them."

"Were you down there tonight?" The monster's voice grew cold. "You should have been. And if you were, you would have seen that some still have a little fight in them."

"Dam," another voice called out, "we can discuss this later. I want to-"

"Try and convince me again," the monster sighed sadly. "I know. Let us go." The blurs all moved, and even with the storm raging below, Lucky could hear the air moving under and around scores, possibly hundreds of wings. The egg and monster also began to fly away.

Lucky was faced with a choice. She could sneak along and risk her life for a truth she suspected she knew a part of now, or she could go home and waste the rest of her life.

The choice was obvious. She felt lucky tonight, even as her mind struggled with all she had just seen. She silently joined the massive flock of light wings all had thought dead long ago. The missing eggs, hatchlings, fledglings of her people.

O-O-O-O-O

The talking started once they were an hour away from the valley, flying out over the dark stormclouds in a direction Lucky recognized as being out over the ocean. Voices started calling to each other, and to the monster at the center of them all. Males, females, scores of different people.

"Move over," a female with a light and airy voice grunted from somewhere nearby. "I wish to relieve myself, and if whoever that is under me wants to avoid being hit, they will listen."  
Lucky darted forward, her heart racing. Her camouflage was going to wear out soon, and she had no idea whether or not they would know she wasn't one of them. Her luck was going to be put to the test, and she was pretty sure it had already run its course.

"Dam," a female called out near the front of the pack, "we are going to be visible in a few moments."

"Good. We will be home soon too," the monster replied calmly. "The two carriers went ahead with the eggs?"

"We saw them off. You know, you should trust us to do what you taught us," a male suggested cheekily. "Only a few of us goofed off instead of watching for ambushes."

So they were working to protect their own kidnapper? This did not feel like a captive army. Lucky felt the telltale loss of heat that signified her camouflage wearing out, but she did not feel in danger, exactly.

All around her, as if triggered by her own camouflage fading, light wings began to come into view, first appearing in patches, ripples of color that spread and covered them in a matter of moments. Losing camouflage was triggered by a lack of heat, not necessarily time, so they were all coming out of it at the same time, having been flying in the cold air together.

There were over a hundred light wings around her. Lucky's own pack was only a few dozen in number now, and shrinking as the elders died off every season-cycle. There were no elders here, and many seemed to be her age or younger. These really were the eggs and hatchlings taken from her pack.

And they all seemed more than happy with their situation. Some laughed, others joked, and still more talked less exuberantly, with the air of friends or even family. None even noticed her.

A small, verdant island appeared on the horizon, visible through a break in the clouds. The swarm of light wings dove, and Lucky followed, pushing her luck as far as it would go.

The egg. She kept her eyes on the egg, and followed that light wing, a male with a calm demeanor and steady wings. The monster was with him, and the two dove for the very center of the island, down into a hole in the ground surrounded by trees, and through a small cavern complex, one that was far more vertical than the one used by her pack.

Light wing couples called out to the monster and the one carrying the egg, directing them further in to join up with those who had come before. Lucky remained unnoticed and unremarked upon, and managed to follow all the way to where the eggs were taken. She lurked in a corner and listened in on what followed.

"Dam, we took three in total, as our scouts reported," a female with crooned. "Are you hurt?"

"No. They put up a fight this time, but not much of one." The monster shook her head wearily. "I am going to sleep here."

"Dam," the male who had brought the egg said worriedly, "you are ill. We could have done this ourselves."

"I am ill, but you need me," the monster agreed. "I am a target, a distraction, an invincible foe, thanks to your interference and aid in the fights. Without me, you would be caught, seen, spotted. They would follow us back."

"They already have, Dam," the female whined. "Several times. All who followed us were young we missed. They all asked to stay with us. We wish to ask you why we still steal from them. They are broken."

"There are no good people there," the monster sighed sadly. "Pearl and Ember saw that. They helped me start this."

"And they left season-cycles ago, when you refused to stop," the female countered sadly, nuzzling the scarred and terrible monster's face. "We help you because we owe you, because we love you for your care. But you are hurting them now, and they could change. The old ones are dying out, and the new are all here."

"Tonight, you hurt them," the male added quietly. "They fought to protect their only egg. We have taken seven from that pair. Maybe they deserve to raise one of their own eggs? They will surely treasure it."

"There are no good people there," the monster repeated stubbornly, curling herself up around the three eggs she had just stolen. "None. You will see… when you are older…"

Nobody spoke until the female monster's snores could be heard.

"Dam is sick in mind," the female whined.

"I know. But she is also sick in body, and she is not long for this world." The male shrugged his wings. "She raised us. She cares for us. And in the beginning, others agreed that she was right. She changed them… but she cannot accept that. Her mind will not let her. We should humor her while she is here, so that she does not die hating herself for all she has done."

"Or we could confront her, and help her change before the end," the other replied. "Just because she is dying does not make what she does now right."

"But it will soon cease to matter. I do not know what is killing her, but I doubt she will make it to the next season. This constant terrorizing and theft is over either way, and she cannot change. We owe her our love, not our scorn."

"Storm always spoke and heard the truth. We owe her as much."

"Love is not always giving what someone wants. It is giving what they need. And she needs to feel she is right."

"You remember?" the female warbled curiously. "She spoke of holding grudges, of trying to fix that. This is just another grudge. She would want to fix it."

"But she does not have the time, and it is too late now." The male's voice was dark. "I love her as a Dam, and we both were taken from a pack that would not have been good for us. It was not a grudge when it began. It was necessary."

"Brother, we are in command when she goes. Even if we let her pass without confronting her, what do we do next?"

"What we always planned to do. We live here in peace, and send scouts to the valley, to find those who would or could change and bring them here. That place is poisoned with the past and what was. This is a good place, what is, and what can be."

Lucky knew what to do. She stepped out into the open, and opened her mouth. "I can tell you who you want, if you tell me what they must be capable of."

Both light wings, brother and sister, turned to stare at her. "You are not one of ours," the female observed.

"I followed you here, and heard all," Lucky admitted honestly. "Tell me, what was so terrible it was decided my pack could not be allowed their own eggs and children?" She spoke with no anger. It was impossible to hate anyone here, for some reason.

"They mistreated their own. Fledglings died, or were abused, or forced to mate with the alpha. It was not a good place, and there were deeper problems. Storm, our Dam," the male continued, nodding to the sleeping dark wing, "came to know one of the pack, Pearl, who long ago escaped all of that. They came here and killed Claw, the horrible alpha, but the pack did not change. That was when it was decided that Storm would save the children, if the parents could not change."

"But Pearl and Ember, her new mate, left a while after, when Storm would not stop and reconsider whether the pack was still so bad," the female whined. "You overheard the rest. We wish to stop her, but she will not be stopped, and we love her too much to defy her."

"Because defying her will destroy her utterly," the male supplied. "So all we ask of any that would join us is that they value life and treat others with respect. It is not such a big thing, but in the beginning the pack was incapable of it."

"I know some who could do that." The very ones Storm had hurt. A few of the Elders. "And I know some who are still as bad as you describe." Those who had new eggs to defend themselves with.

"And you?"

"I was one of the few you all missed, in the beginning," Lucky explained quietly. "They call me Lucky because of that."

"Storm called me Thunder," the male volunteered. "My younger sister is Lightning. Lucky, do you want to live here, with us?" His voice was soft. "You really should have gotten to grow up here."

What could she say? None of this was good, or right, but it also was not bad. Good intentions, horrible methods and consequences. Conviction turned stubborn blindness. A monster who tried to be a savior.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm bolted upright, the vivid dream still fresh in her mind, and ran out into the dark and stormy morning, more upset than she could remember ever being.

She stuck her head in a puddle and blew out through her nose, scattering the water with her breath. It was just a dream, a strange and terrible one brought on by tiredness, the storm, and simple bad luck.

Luck. Lucky. A female light wing that did not exist. Storm had seen a future through the eyes of a dragon who was not real, a future in which she was exactly what she was now, a stubborn creature who could not let go.

She had promised Pearl that future if Pearl could not come up with a better one. Pearl had not, in the end, but another light wing was already leading the fight from the inside. Storm only had two light wing hatchlings in her care, and they had been entrusted to her by their Dam, not stolen. Thunder and Lightning.

Did the dream mean something? Was she still on that horrible path? Or was it nothing, a nightmare brought on by the stress of raising two hatchings, even with everyone else's help?

Did it matter? She returned to the small cave she had taken for herself and her foster children and dropped a wing over them, glad they had not woken up.

She could dismiss it all as a dream that meant nothing, or she could learn from it. She could strive to totally destroy the flaws she knew existed within herself, or at the very least to counter and negate them.

And if she ever ended up with another daughter, foster or laid from her own body, however unlikely both were right now, she knew what that hatchling would be named. Lucky.

Lucky to not be born into the horrible future that Storm had seen through her eyes.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Dreams are fun to write, mostly because I get to avoid reality and its limitations. This story is rife with logical failings (why is Storm seemingly invincible? How is Lucky the first one to think of just following Storm up? What are the odds it all goes so well for years on end?) and character failings (would Storm really just keep attacking and stealing once things fell apart for the pack? Why would Ember and Pearl just leave her to it?). All that matters for a dream is that it makes sense from the perspective of the one dreaming. Storm wouldn't dream logically, she would dream emotionally, and all she saw was designed to cater to the meaning of the dream. Basically, she saw what she expected (or dreaded), and didn't notice the flaws involved.**

**As for what it meant? Nothing, I just wanted an excuse to write about that never-realized plot of Storm's. But it does have exactly one effect on the rest of this universe, and I think that effect is pretty obvious, so I won't bother saying what it is.**


	3. Pearl - Romance (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 31.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is one of the smaller, shorter pieces I knew I wanted to write. It's going here because it didn't really fit the pacing of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **, but deserves to be shown. It's set in the first of the three or so months it took Pearl, Ember, and Storm to return to Pearl's pack near the end of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **, the time interval that story totally skipped over.**

* * *

Pearl figured she should be getting used to these moments.

These moments, specifically. Storm had presumably wandered off somewhere but was probably watching from the trees or the night sky. She would want to know what was going to happen, at least at first.

Ember was sitting on the shore, looking out at the sea. This time, at the very least, he was not nervous. The answer was pretty much a foregone conclusion, for both of them, but this was important all the same, and she was glad he was calm.

As for her? She _should_ be good at this; they had gone through the motions three times before. Once when she finally revealed how she felt, once when he gave her an answer later, and then once more when he caught up and confessed that he had given the wrong answer.

She shouldn't be nervous. But they didn't have a good track record with handling these things. The first time had not needed an answer, but the second time had broken her heart, and the third was more of a 'we need time' than an actual resolution. And the saying was that the third time was the charm. What about the fourth?

She was worrying over nothing. This was a well-rehearsed moment, in the end. One she did not expect to end badly.

So she steeled herself and approached Ember, sitting down beside him. The night was cloudy, and the moon could not be seen at the moment, so there was not much light. Not that either of them needed much light; they had good eyes for darkness.

"Has Storm gone?" Ember asked quietly, looking over at her. "She does not even know where we intend to spend tonight."

"She plans on finding her own resting place and rejoining us in the morning," Pearl explained. That was not normal, and Pearl was sure Storm was spying on them right now, but that was the official plan.

"As she would," Ember rumbled. "Pearl… how do you judge a single moon-cycle?"

"From one stage of the moon, all the way around… or just thirty days if that is not convenient," Pearl replied. "I've been keeping track."

"Same." Ember looked out over the sea. "I want to do this _right_ ; we're not going through this a fifth time."  
"Agreed." She felt the same.

"Pearl," he said quietly, "when I came out here after you, I came more for a hope, a chance, than something we actually had. I didn't know it at the time; blame my son for rushing me off, and me for not getting advice in the first place."

That didn't sound so promising, but Pearl knew Ember far better now, so she knew he would not be starting with this if the message was bad.

"When I came out after you, I didn't really know you," Ember continued. "Now I do. It probably would have been wrong of you to accept me straight out that day. And for all I know, it is still too soon now."

Not doing this a fifth time. It was a good thing she had no doubts. "If we wait until we know each other completely, we will be old dragons barely able to fly under the weight of the seasons we've lived through."

"I know." He turned to her, leaning forward and inhaling her scent. "I don't know everything about you, but I know who you are, and I love you. Will you be my mate? For real, not some trial or 'wait and see' period? We have done that, and it was totally necessary, but I do not want to do it any more."

"That's over," Pearl agreed. "The moon cycle has passed as of tonight." Actually, as of tomorrow night, but this was close enough. More than close enough. "I would have been happy had you said yes the first time the question was posed. I know I will be far _more_ content now, since we actually know each other a little bit more."

"We do." He nuzzled her gently. "It probably would have worked either way, but doing it like this was much smarter."

"Smarter, safer, less frustrating…" she purred. "And there was always the chance it would not have worked out." A small chance, in her mind, but still.

"Yes." He shook his head. "I didn't even know your past when Beryl talked me into saying yes the first time. What was I thinking? For all I knew, you were some insane mass-murderer with split personalities."

Pearl chuckled at that, catching the reference. "I'll be honest, _that_ has always confused me. Why would someone with all the time in the world lead her hopes for a relationship with 'I'm an immortal who lives off of the stolen lives of others', of all things? She could have spent season-cycles romancing some hapless male before revealing that."

"Reeled him in before revealing the catch," Ember agreed. "That would have been much better. But who knows? Maybe she tried that."

Pearl nodded. "Maybe. Are you saying I've reeled you in?" She didn't even know what reeling was in this context, but she got the idea.

"Definitely, but I'm the one with all of the catches," he murmured.

"Such as having had a mate in the past." She had known that pretty much from the start. "Tell me how you see that now?" It was a request, not a demand, because while she wanted to know, she wasn't entirely sure she would like the answer.

"I try not to think too much about it?" Ember warbled. "Part of me had a mate in the past. I still miss her, and always will, but I miss other people too. My preferred way of thinking about it is that I am not the same person Flint met, or even the same one she raised two sons with."

"Literally," Pearl agreed.

"Exactly. My No-scaled-not-prey side never got a chance to have a mate, but the same thing would have applied. When my two sides merged, I became a different person. You are the one and only mate I want _now_." Ember shook his head. "Please tell me that makes sense."

"It does." She was just glad _he_ was able to come to terms with it. She also didn't plan on asking him any probing hypotheticals such as 'if Flint appeared in front of us right now, who would you choose?' That would help nobody, because neither of them could even guess at the answer to something like that.

"And I am fine with what you are," Pearl purred, changing the subject somewhat. "So we are good."

"We are." Ember sat down across from her. "I know I learned a lot about you this past moon-cycle. What your past was like, how you think, all sorts of things. What did you learn about me?"

"What did I learn about you?" A series of short memories flew through her mind, little moments she considered important. "Let's see…"

O-O-O-O-O

Three days into their moon-cycle of trying things out, Pearl subtly maneuvered Ember just far enough away from Storm in their formation that she would not overhear. She could tell Ember knew what she was doing; he allowed himself to be nudged out of formation by her slightly encroaching on his flying space.

Once they were far enough away, he spoke. "What is it that Storm cannot hear?" he asked in a low hiss, keeping his voice down.

"I just wanted to-" Pearl began, before noticing Storm looking over at them. She didn't want Storm to overhear simply because this was a personal matter, one that could be embarrassing if handled where Storm could here. "I wanted to know if you'd be willing to slip away tonight."

Ember blinked at her. "For… things Storm would make fun of us for discussing?" he asked, clearly confused. "What… oh."

So he had it. "So?" She wanted to at least try that, and today was a good day.

"Well… it's kind of odd," he whispered. "I was raised to think that should only happen if we were actually mated, so to speak."

"Really?" She raised her voice on accident.

"What?" Storm barked, veering over to them. "Flying over an empty coastline is boring, do not cut me out of interesting conversations."

"This does not really concern you," Pearl huffed.

"We are talking of how No-scaled-not-prey pair up in their culture," Ember said far more casually. "It's not all that interesting, but Pearl asked."

"And it is better than flying in silence, so clue me in," Storm said firmly. "Even if I do not care, it should make for a few minutes of entertainment."

"Okay," Ember agreed, shooting Pearl a subtle look of shared annoyance. He would rather just get to the point, very much like she would. "No-scaled-not-prey have ceremonies and rules for these things."

"Like?" Storm prompted. "I am sure there are some stupid ones."

"Oh, there are," he readily agreed. "And some that are just how they do things, like not doing the actual act of mating until being officially mates. Doing it before then is a huge thing that could get people killed."

"Killed?" Pearl asked, interested in spite of herself. This wasn't what she had wanted to talk about, but it was interesting nonetheless. They had plenty of time to get to why Ember was hesitant to do something simple and natural between mates or those trying the idea out.

"Yes. There's a whole system of honor and such. If the female's family finds out she and the male have been doing things before it's official, they'll fight the male and possibly kill him."

"Well that is stupid," Storm complained. "The female likes the male so much she does that, and the end result is killing the same male off?"

"I didn't say it's a good system," Ember agreed. "But it does kind of cut down on chaos and bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. It's far from the worst tradition they have."

"You sound like you are thinking of one in particular," Pearl noted.

"I suppose I am." Ember bobbed up and down on an errant gust of wind, presumably getting his flight path back in order, before responding. "There is this one custom I avoided in becoming all of… this."

"Get to it," Storm said rudely.

"The son of the No-scaled-not-prey alpha, when taking a mate, would have to actually mate with her in front of witnesses," Ember finished, sounding embarrassed. "Don't ask me why, I have absolutely no idea."

Pearl was surprised by that… but she was far more surprised by Storm's reaction to the same information. Storm visibly flinched mid-air, dropping a short distance as she forgot to flap. "That is disgusting!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, it is." Ember glanced over at Pearl, and then down at Storm. "It really is."

Pearl knew what he was wondering; she was wondering the same. Since when did Storm, blunt and direct Storm, care that much about privacy in matters such as these? She seemed physically repulsed by the very idea.

Then Pearl caught a very sly grin as it spread across Ember's face.

"Truly disgusting," Ember called out. "On the night the two are declared mates, the Sire gathers a dozen random males to come and watch."

Storm snarled up at him, and dove further down. "I get the idea! Can you talk about something else?"

"How in the world would anyone be able to do anything while being watched like that?" Pearl asked loudly, getting what Ember was doing. Maybe they could have their private talk after all.

"Don't ask me, _I_ would never be able to. And sometimes the males watching start giving advice," Ember called out.

That did it. Storm dove so far she almost plunged into the ocean below, and stayed at that height, skimming the waves far out of earshot.

"Everyone has their little exception," Ember remarked seemingly out of the blue. "One random thing they simply cannot stand hearing or even thinking about."

"So… Storm's thing is privacy?" Pearl asked.

"No, not that. I think she might be squeamish about the idea of mating in general." Ember shrugged his wings. "I kind of am too, but not that badly. Not when talking about what I _don't_ have to do, anyway. I got out of that."  
"That was all true?" She hadn't been entirely sure.

Ember grimaced. "All true. And since I was the alpha's son, that was lurking in my future somewhere."

"I never knew that you were an alpha's son." It had simply never come up. "And it's really funny Storm is squeamish about _that_ sort of thing, given she's been looking for a mate for so long."

"Nobody said it was a rational dislike." Ember glanced down at Storm, who was still far below. "Anyway, back to my original point. I'm kind of thinking we don't do any of that right now. I'm not totally comfortable with it."

"We are kind of mates," Pearl said slowly.

"This is like being betrothed, a sort of in-between state. We are not mates _yet,_ even if it is expected we will be in the near future." Ember shrugged his wings. "Dragons do not care, but I am not entirely dragon, and part of me does care."

"Then we will not do any of that," Pearl replied firmly, giving up the idea. She was not so curious that she couldn't wait. It was more just that she assumed he would expect it to happen and was not opposed to it. "Tell me more about No-scaled-not-prey," she requested.

"Why? Because it drives Storm away?"

"Because it's a part of you." They were supposed to be getting to know each other. She had just discovered a huge lack of knowledge in her own side of that. And it was interesting, besides.

O-O-O-O-O

Eight days in, they had run into a storm, and were forced to find shelter down in a valley just off the coast, lacking anywhere better.

Pearl couldn't sleep. The rain was both soothing and not, simply because while the sound was nice, the wet drops on her back was anything but. They were all sheltering under a dirt overhang jutting out at the bottom of a steep hillside, but it was not large enough to cover even one of them completely. It was still the best they could find.

Storm began to snore, having somehow found sleep. Pearl lightly shoved her, hoping that she would stop.

Ember moved out from under the ledge and stood in the valley, looking around at the grass and trees in the distance.

"What are you doing?" Pearl softly called out.

"Getting wet." Ember walked further out into the valley. "And wondering if this valley will start flooding. It might be dangerous for us all to fall asleep right now."

The grass was wet, but Pearl didn't think this place would flood. "Is that likely?"

"Hard to tell." Ember pawed at the ground, digging a small hole. "No way to know until the water starts pooling everywhere."

"Well, I'm not going to be able to sleep now," Pearl declared, moving out from under the ledge to join him in the valley proper. "Should we wake Storm, if it is possible this place will flood?"

"No need; we will know for sure long before she is in any danger." He tilted his face up to catch the rain in his open mouth. "I kind of like the rain."

"Why?" She didn't. It was rain, weather, cold and annoying. At least it was not snow, which stuck around after.

"I just do." He purred at her. "You do not?"

"It is rain; what is there to like?" She didn't see anything special about it.

"It sounds nice, it is refreshing… sure, it is annoying, but only if you have anything better to do that it is stopping," he explained. "You don't like feeling it hit you?"

How did he know? "No."

He lifted a wing. "Under here, then. I can fix that."

Pearl walked over to him and ducked under his outstretched wing. "This is not making me like the rain any better."

"No but it is getting you in the right mindset to appreciate the good parts," he countered. "Just listen. Did you ever spend a day listening, or watching, or thinking?"

"Yes, but most of those days were involuntary." Her moon-cycles tied up in a cage came to mind. The rain had been torture then, as the tarp cast over her cage was not good enough to keep it off of her when the wind blew.

"I did sometimes, as a dark wing," he said quietly. "Not as a No-scaled-not-prey. I didn't care either way, like you. But my dark wing side has an appreciation for things like this. Just listen. It is calming, if you let it drive away all other thoughts."

They stood there in silence for a long while, him sheltering her, having asked her to listen and do nothing else. She wanted to humor him at first, so she did.

It was pleasantly constant, like the world was purring. After a while, she could hear the changes in intensity, the storm fading away, ever so slowly. She could hear the wind rising and falling, driving the water against different surfaces.

It was soothing. Not like what he said; she could still think of other things. But she found she did not dislike listening to the rain.

And then, just as she was beginning to enjoy sitting next to Ember more than listening to the rain, or maybe the combination of the two, it tapered away, slowly drying out in a matter of minutes.

"I hear what you mean," she murmured. "I don't like it as much as you seem to, but it is nice."

"It is not often I get to just sit and listen to it." He still had his wing out over her. "I suppose I also like it because it is rare I am at peace."

"Are you now?"

"Yes." He looked over at her. "Mostly. But I spent much of my past searching fruitlessly for something, travelling alone. Back then, it was far more useful."

"Now?"

"Now, I could take it or leave it. I had almost forgotten I enjoyed it." He paused for a moment. "I enjoy it more when there is someone else to share it with."

"You could have woken Storm," Pearl purred teasingly.

"Can you see her appreciating anything calming?" he asked rhetorically. "No, not Storm. I prefer your company, anyway. She is my sister, but she is… well, Storm."

"It would take a very special dragon to appreciate her for herself," Pearl agreed, phrasing it nicely. "I don't think she's going to find what she is looking for with my pack."

"Who knows? I did, and I wasn't even looking." He didn't look down at her, and from the way he said it she suspected he didn't know he had spoken aloud. That made it all the more genuine, to her.

O-O-O-O-O

Twenty days into the trip, Pearl almost blasted Ember out of the sky.

"Don't do that!" she shrieked, firing at the water far below instead of his face. He was supposed to be back at the copse they had chosen to be their resting point for the day, not out here above the ocean. She was going out to find a good fishing spot, something they took turns doing _alone_ , partially because only one person was needed, and partially to give everyone some time to themselves once in a while.

"Sorry!" Ember ducked down, flying to the right until he was a safe distance away from her. "Did I scare you?"

"Yes." She felt the not-so-subtle heat of embarrassment, but ignored it in her agitation. "Don't do that again." All he had done was bark loudly right behind her, but she had thought herself totally alone.

"Do you really not like it?" he asked curiously. "I will not do it if so, but I have not yet met anyone who minded so much."

She could take it back. He might like her better if she wasn't bothered-

No, that was stupid. They were supposed to be getting to know each other, not putting up fronts and pretending to have different opinions on anything. "I really can't stand being snuck up on."

"Okay. Is this because of… your past?" he crooned sympathetically.

Pearl shook her head. "No, it's not that at all." One of the worst parts of her past was that none of it was ever a surprise, it was all planned and predetermined. Being snuck up on just bothered her. It wasn't fun, even after the fact. "I just don't like it."

"The scare, or not knowing I am there?" he persisted.

"Why do you need to know anything more?" Pearl asked in turn. She wasn't so mad now, as the fear and shock was wearing off, but he was dragging this out.

"I want to know what you would like, and what you would not. Would you mind a quiet, calm announcement of my presence?"

"I don't know what you mean by that." Did he mean he would growl or something?

"Like… Well, imagine this. You are alone on the ground somewhere. I approach unseen and unheard and get close before purring quietly to let you know I am there. Or maybe I lick you, or something like that."

Pearl looked over at Ember and had to laugh at the earnest but slightly embarrassed look on his face. As for what he was suggesting… "I am fine with that. It is the scare I don't like." What he was talking about sounded pleasant. It also sounded like something mates would do with each other, and the time was coming when that definition would probably apply to them.

Even in him overstepping, she saw nothing bad. He understood and backed off once she made her displeasure known. She had already known he was considerate, but it was good to have fresh proof.

O-O-O-O-O

"What did I learn?" she repeated, trying to recover her train of thought. There were dozens of memories like that, quiet moments, happy moments, even sober, tense moments in which harder topics were discussed. A few arguments, disagreements, resolutions, nice gestures. They had learned much about each other, and she suspected moments she did not even consider important were worth more than anything to him, and vice versa. "A lot."

"That is not very specific," he purred. "But somehow it sums everything up nicely."

"We do not know everything, but we know far more than before," Pearl added, actually intending to sum it up this time.

"Far more. And what's love without some willingness to leap into the unknown?" Ember nuzzled her, and she nuzzled him right back. "I'll take that leap."

"So will I." She knew that some might say even a moon-cycle of this, and several moon-cycles of casual travelling together before that would not be enough. But life was too short to wait forever, and she knew her own heart. Ember knew his now, too. This was good.

_**Author's Note:** _ **I could have made this longer, but to be honest this is one of those 'it works better if I show you the door and tell you to imagine what goes on behind it' things, simply because I'm still very much learning how to write romance. The better I get, the less the minutia and complications will be left up to the imagination. And believe me, I'm working on it. Romance and high emotion are my weak points as an author, so I'm throwing them at myself again and again in different stories, to force myself to improve. This was a small attempt at one such practice. Other larger and more elaborate such things are coming in this universe and in others, so I** _**will** _ **get better, if only by force of will.**


	4. Pyre - Sacrifice (DS)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 12.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This was actually originally a scene from** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **itself, the second half of what was then the 10th chapter. But the story went through a lot of updates and revisions between that first draft and now, and somewhere along the way, everything involving this particular event got rearranged for very important reasons. Also, this was the** _**only** _ **time Lily's POV was ever broken in the original draft, and I didn't really like doing that, so once this scene became irrelevant, there was no way I was keeping it.**

**But I liked it, despite its (many) flaws and difficulties. So here it is. All you need to know, contextually, is that Lily fled to Pyre the morning after being taken by Claw, confessed to every lie she's ever told, and was then sneakily put to sleep by Pyre, who used very much the same trick she did with Pearl, hiding one plant among others meant to kill pain. Any other inconsistencies between this and the story that is being posted as canon can be explained by the phrase "there's a reason this got totally scrapped". The same applies to OOC decisions, statements, etc.**

* * *

Rage, self-loathing, and grief. The dragon who had called himself Pyre on a whim several season-cycles ago walked down to the shore, conserving his strength.

Lily had been abused, violated, hurt. He wanted to kill Claw. Fast, slow, whatever. It would not matter how, as the end result was ridding the world of such a twisted creature. That rage simmered inside him, acknowledged and put aside. He had to do something else first, to prepare.

Flight was an old memory, but swimming was a current one, the currents and hidden power in the water that doomed all others of his kind buffeting him, doing nothing. He was strong because he was weak and had nothing left worth attacking. So he plunged into the water as a damned soul might dive into battle, understanding that there was nothing to fear.

The water was murky, but his sight was keen, and his motivations strong.

There. He lunged and bit into a small rope-like creature, severing the head and swallowing it, though every instinct in his body screamed not to. Then he ate the rest before quickly returning to the surface.

By the time he made it to the shore, his head was spinning, but Risa was waiting.

"This is not real," Risa said calmly.

"No, it is not, and I know that." Pyre began walking back towards the valley, to the path up and down the mountain that he had painstakingly carved out. "But it is good to see you again."

Risa walked alongside him, her nostrils glowing slightly red. His vision was also slightly tinted red, another side-effect of consuming eel. He did not care. The nausea, a rising well of sickly energy he was going to need to expel, and the hallucinations were all familiar. This was the only way he could see Risa again, and he had long ago mastered the effects of eel. Once a season-cycle for decades on end, four days before the full moon of the hot season, he consumed eel, and spent the three days of hallucinations as he wished, talking to Risa for hours on end, running through the forest with her, even swimming, for she was not truly there, a figment of his own mind. But a true figment, more real than his memories ever could feel on their own.

It was probably killing him, to do it so often, but he did not want to live to old age anyway. He already felt old.

"You are being selfish even in your rage on her behalf, you know." Risa shook her head, her voice disapproving. "She would rather have you alive than dead."

"But I cannot help her alive." He had already made his decision.

"You can comfort her. That is not nothing. This is too big a risk for too little reward."

"We both know why I risk this," Pyre commented, ascending the mountain. "Whether or not I succeed in killing him, my death will spur her on. She needs the motivation. We share the same affliction, she and I. Our own pain does not often feel so important as the pain of another. It might be my fault that she is like that."

He had taught her all he knew, but maybe she had also picked up his faults. That was not something he himself could fix, for it was not something he could fix in himself either.

They were outside the cavern. Pyre looked in on his slumbering daughter, hating the faint scent of her blood in the air polluting the peace and happiness her normal scent brought.

Risa's image walked over to Lily and nuzzled her, showing the affection Pyre had only for a brief time witnessed with a hatchling Cressa.

"We lost Cressa." Risa nodded down at Lily. "But Lily is our daughter. You have told her."

"She knows," he agreed. "Family are the ones by your side, the ones who care. I have told her many times."

They walked out of the cavern and began to follow the path down into the valley.

"Do you think you will find me in death?" Risa asked idly. "The No-scaled-not-prey believe so, but our kind has no such beliefs, oddly enough."

"I choose to find you," Pyre responded solemnly. "Why else do you think I go to die in battle? They are not wrong, for their way of seeing death is one of honor and valor, as opposed to empty failure. In some ways, I think they are the better of us, for they create even in what they cannot know. We subsist and accept failure."

"I would have slapped you for saying that in life," Risa commented. "And I would physically hold you in that cavern, forcing you to swear to our daughter that you will never leave her. You know that."

"Sometimes, what is best is not what is easy, or what will make everyone involved happy," Pyre retorted. "And this is my decision. You are simply voicing my regrets and doubts."

"I am, and I know you will not be swayed. Your self-hatred is driving you to this solution, though you could think up alternatives in time."

Pyre nodded in agreement. "I do hate myself. This is a way to redeem myself, and help her in the process." He rounded a small corner in the path and looked down over the valley.

Risa stood beside him, and he could not feel the heat that should be radiating from a living body. She was a hallucination in the end, and he could not feel her.

"They are stupid," Risa commented. "From what Lily said, they do not question, resist, change. If you fail, she will have to fix them."

"No." Pyre shook his head in denial. "She will go to our first home and make a new life. Let these amoral monsters die in their own filth. They do not deserve her efforts."

"Do they not?" Risa looked out over the valley. "She spoke well of Crystal, Moss, Pearl, Pina. Four who deserve better, who deserve her love, in one way or another. Can she leave them, those who are still here? Can she even think of leaving?"

"Maybe, maybe not. It is out of my paws. And it is possible the better choice would be to stay, suffer, and fight for change," Pyre admitted. "I would not have her do that, but it is not my choice. Just as it is not her choice whether I spend my life in her defense."

"You are arguing with nothing, dear," Risa commented wryly. "I am not here, remember?"

"Soon, though." He continued on, almost down to the valley. He had carved this path in the early days when he still harbored some hope of Cressa coming around.

"Cressa is not our daughter. Maybe if we could have raised her..." Risa sighed. "If there is an afterlife, and all of us wind up together, she will have much explaining and apologizing to do."

"But that is the beauty of what the No-scaled-not-prey believe, Risa." Pyre chuckled, setting foot in the valley for the first time in decades. "She will go to a place of cold and empty suffering. The No-scaled-not-prey believe it has something to do with whether one dies in battle or not, but I think it would make more sense if those who do wrong and do not regret it go there. And as I am choosing to believe, I choose to believe that is how it works."

"Ever cynical, even in a matter of faith." Risa made a show of looking around. "Do you wish to appear insane here?"

Pyre considered that. "Sure, but not too insane. I love you, but you should not talk to me much here."

"Tell it to me yourself, if you succeed in getting yourself killed." Then a chuckle. "What happens if you kill him and no one kills you in retaliation?"

"I spend a few season-cycles apologizing profusely to Lily, swear to not do anything so stupid again, and live life." Pyre chuckled wryly, walking out into the open between the rocks. "If I survive this, it is because I am meant to be there for Lily. I would not throw that away. But I think I am meant to die here, now."

Risa walked beside him, and they approached the nearest dragon, who was staring in a mixture of awe and horror. His wings, probably, as this particular dragon appeared too young to remember him.

"Would you mind directing me to Claw?" He asked nicely, flaring his wings in a subtle effort to demonstrate how obviously harmless he was... and distract from the red fire dripping from his nostrils. The sickly energy from the eel needed to be released soon. "He wishes to speak to me immediately."

"Over there, on the plateau." The female winced, looking at him. "You do not look so well."

"Of course not, I am dying. Or will be, anyway." Pyre left her there, heading for the plateau, which has several figures on it.

"I believe you scared her, dear. You do look quite intimidating." Risa stepped in front of Pyre and began to hover at a set distance from him as he walked, blatantly disregarding reality.

"Do try to put some effort into appearing real, Risa." Pyre remarked. "We both know you cannot do that without moving your wings at the very least."

"Spoilsport. I'm not real, so let me have fun." Risa returned to the ground despite her objections. "So, how do you plan on doing this?"

"First I figure out which one is Claw, and then I see just how much damage one of these red blasts can do to flesh and bone." Pyre coughed, spitting a small example of the immensely unhealthy power building, blowing a small hole in the grass and dirt. "And again and again until he no longer exists, or until someone else kills me, or I run out of shots."

"So clean," Risa growled. "But I suppose it affords you the best chance of success, even if it is less painful than he deserves."

"That it does." Pyre shrugged off an odd look from a nearby dragon with a simple correction. "Not talking to you."

Then he was close enough to see the occupants of the plateau. Three females and a male, one of the females recognizable.

"Oh, it's that nice one, Crystal." Risa purred. "You are doing this for her too. She is Lily's friend, and also suffering thanks to Claw."

"Yes, I am." Pyre climbed up the plateau, facing the dragons who were just now noticing him. He spread his wings and opened his mouth, allowing the power to build. It almost felt like throwing up, as opposed to the normal feel of spitting or coughing, but that made sense as the power he was channeling originated in his stomach.

A roar of surprise from one of the females, motion. Pyre did not care. He shot at the one he hated, a massive red blast of energy leaving his mouth burned and in agony.

So much agony. He doubled over, coughing and gagging, his mouth burned on the inside. He had held it too long; it had hurt so much. But had it-

An impact on his side and he was thrown off the plateau, slamming his head and side into the jagged edge of another rock, a flash of pain.

He lay on his side at the base of that rock, feeling strangely broken inside. His body was not responding to his need to move, to attack.

The one who had to be Claw limped up, a large bruise and char mark across his side.

Risa was kneeling by Pyre's side. She looked up and spat in disgust. "It just popped on impact, the force going out in all directions. No damage that will not heal. But there was no way to know. It could just have easily been strong enough to kill if the power all went the right way."

"Should have tested that first," Pyre coughed weakly.

Claw, of course, did not see Risa, but he did hear Pyre's response. "Yes, you should have."

"Not... talking to you." Pyre rolled his eyes around to focus on Risa. "I'm dying."

"It's what you wanted," Risa replied neutrally. "I will see you in whatever comes next."

"And I will finally be able to touch you again, to know we are truly together." He laughed, though air was not coming easily.

"Mad, it seems," Claw growled, placing his paw on Pyre's neck. "Should I put you out of your misery, or should I make it worse?"

"Doesn't matter to me," Pyre responded happily. "I failed, but that was pretty much guaranteed. At least I die fighting."

"You die lying there," Claw corrected. "Talking to yourself."

"Fighting nonetheless, though now I fight my own body," Pyre rasped, "trying with all that remains of my strength to reach up and tear your heart out of your chest." He glanced down with his eyes at his limp paws. "As you can see, I am not succeeding."

"Totally mad." Claw shook his head. "Why did you attack me?"

To avenge Lily. To kill a monster that should not exist. To get himself killed. But that was not how he was going to answer.

"To die and maybe make the world a little better in the process."

"You are doing one of those." Claw walked away without another word.

The world was growing slowly darker. Then another figure crouched at his side, looking into his eyes. Risa was off to the side, waiting.

"How can I help you?" Crystal asked quietly. "I cannot let you die. Lily is near breaking already."

"It is not possible to save me now. She knows why I do this." Pyre could feel the cold encroaching, and knew it would not be long. "I die only regretting that I failed. Be a good friend to Lily. She needs friends."

"She needed you, I think." Crystal glanced up as if to be sure she was not being watched. "This will destroy her."

"She is... stronger... than that." His eyes did not seem to be working, and now all he could see was Risa, sitting in a pool of black emptiness. Soon, now.

She approached him, and he felt her touch his head with her paw. Was it Crystal he could feel, or was this real?

"Does it matter?" She purred at him, moving to his wings. "Your suffering is over."

Feeling returned to his limbs, and there was no pain. He looked back and saw that his wings were whole, membrane returned as if it had never been torn away and discarded.

The world was still dark around him, but he found that he could stand. Was this a last, gasping hallucination as he died, or something more?

He didn't care. He leaped into the air and joined his mate in a blind flight, putting the question out of his mind and following her. Sooner or later, if this was not a hallucination, Lily would join them, from old age hopefully, having lived a full and happy life.

Or maybe this would abruptly end in the next moment as the last bit of life trickled from the body he was no longer aware of.

Did it really matter? At the moment, he was happy, though there was a bit of guilt at leaving Lily behind. Nothing could ever be perfect.

His words to Crystal were right, though. Lily was strong enough to not be totally broken by his death.

_**Author's Note:** _ **I left the ending ambiguous intentionally because the possible existence of an afterlife doesn't really matter in this story, which is entirely focused on the land of the living. Believe whatever you wish about those last moments, though I think the popular interpretation will be the happy one (whether or not one approves of what Pyre just did), to balance the horrors of this story.**

**But none of this is canon, so I suppose it doesn't matter. Whether or not the whole bit about eels and Pyre using them to hallucinate his dead mate is canon is trickier; I** _**meant** _ **it to be, and even hinted toward it, but the way things played out, we never got to see it or hear it confirmed in the main story. So readers can take it or leave it, as there's no way to be sure. (As of yet, anyway. If I see a way to work it on later, I will, because I like the idea.)**


	5. Ember - Illustrations (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains.** _

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is admittedly not very plot-important to… well, anything, but it was fun and helpful for something else entirely, and it provides a very useful reference for me to point to in the future. Besides, it's good practice. The art of describing something or someone in text is something to be honed, after all. What follows is a thinly veiled excuse for me to go over the physical appearance of most of the Furies from the first two books in this universe with a metaphorical fine-tooth comb, putting all of their descriptions in one tidy spot, ready to be pulled from as needed in the future.**

* * *

"Ideas, I need ideas," Ember said to himself, staring at the weak, unsteady line he had drawn across the parchment in front of him. A stack of unmarked parchment sat off to the side, and several charcoal pencils lay atop it. There was a place for different dyes, something he intended to experiment with soon, and a place for finished drawings, a large, unmarked cave wall above the makeshift desk he had assembled off to one side of the cave he and Pearl had claimed as their own.

There was a place for everything, and everything was in its place, except for one specific thing. He had no finished drawings to display, and a debilitating lack of inspiration.

In the past, he had drawn many things. Machines, designs, things meant to win him acknowledgment or to save lives, or to take them more effectively. Then, he had drawn Beryl, or Toothless as he had called him back in those days, enjoying the change in subject and the comforting glow of a happy secret kept from everyone else.

But all of that felt like it was a whole other lifetime, and depending on how one looked at his situation, might as well have been. He hadn't had the time or inclination to put charcoal pencil to parchment in months, probably more than a year now.

Not that he didn't want to; he had leaped at the chance to make himself a space in the home he shared with Pearl and often his sons, a place for his human self to create, fix, and tinker away spare hours. It was even _practical_ for him to do so; he didn't age unless he was using that body, and common sense dictated that he at least try and age himself up in both forms at proportional speeds, so that both reached their natural end at roughly the same time.

Tinkering and drawing was a great way to spend time in his human body. He didn't lack reason, he lacked direction.

A project, he decided, staring at the single, wobbly line he had traced in his indecision, would be what he needed. Something long-winded, something to get him back into the mindset of drawing the world around him. Something that would look good on the wall, ideally something Pearl would like to look at, given she would see it often enough.

He wished he had a few of his drawings of Beryl from before… everything. Maybe he could start by recreating one or two, and then probably do a few of Spark so he didn't feel left out-

Ember smiled to himself as he gathered up his parchment and pencils. _That_ was a worthy project to dip his feet back into things. There were so many interesting subjects to draw living all around him, and he had plenty of time. He'd draw everyone.

O-O-O-O-O

"Wait, you are telling me that you drew me while I was sleeping?" Beryl asked. "I feel violated."

"It's not like I could ask," Ember laughed, leaning back against a tree. "Besides, you _saw_ that picture when you nosed through my notebook a few days later. Don't pretend you didn't know about it."

"And I did watch you sleep for many days straight," Beryl rumbled. "Fair is fair. Anyway, you want to keep drawing?"

"Starting with you. Just stand still and let me refresh my memory." He _could_ draw Beryl from memory alone, but that was harder, and there was no point when his son was a quick flight away, stalking through the forest, unoccupied.

"Sounds good," Beryl agreed.

Ember began sketching, at first looking at the parchment but as he grew more comfortable, often without looking down at all. The movement of his charcoal pencil was familiar, his hands nimble now that he had something to depict, and a familiar subject at that.

Beryl looked as he always had. He had a sleek but muscular build, no excess fat to speak of, a long tail, and strong wing shoulders. He was black as night, with very subtle grey mottling so faint that it was only really visible in the sunlight.

His tailfins, on the other hand, were not as they had always been, and Ember spent a while on them, though they took up relatively little space on the parchment. The old one was faintly scarred while the new one was not, a visible reminder that one was original and the other regrown. The regrown fin was not structurally different, but if Ember looked closely he could see signs that it was different, slightly different proportions that anyone casually looking would never notice.

Beryl's eyes, he left blank on the parchment, aside from a faint outline of the pupils. He planned to experiment with the dyes he had left behind later, once he returned to the cave. Just charcoal could never do those green-yellow irises justice, not really. They were piercing, even in the daytime, even framed against a forest of green and brown.

Last, and with some reluctance, he took the image he had made and began to add a certain kind of detail. Scars, old and relatively new, marked Beryl in the same way his mottling did, another type of off-grey that did not break his color scheme so much as accent how pitch-black the rest of him was. Faint scars from ropes, more from various crashes and fights, still more from the long assault on Vithvarandi… The only mercy was that he bore no obvious scars from his latest captivity and the small war that followed, mostly because he had been freed quickly and only involved in a single battle.

Beryl stood still all the while, patiently waiting. When Ember carefully pressed the drawing between two other blank parchments, blotting the excess charcoal crumbs up and hopefully off the important page, he twitched.

"Done?"

"Done," Ember said with a smile. It had come out wonderfully, and he was feeling more enthusiastic about doing everyone else while he was at it. "Thanks for helping."

"No problem. In fact, I can help more," Beryl offered. "You were going to do everyone?"

"Spark is next, if I can find him," Ember confirmed.

"I happen to know where he is and when he is coming back," Beryl revealed. "I'll save you some time, he's out in the middle of nowhere and won't be back until noon."

O-O-O-O-O

Spark turned in place, eyeing Ember dubiously. "So Sire just wants me to stand still?" he asked for the third time.

"Yes," Beryl growled, "and that means no turning!"

"I'm nearly done," Ember said absently. Having already drawn a Fury once that same day, he was finding the process quicker a second time around.

Spark was smaller than Beryl, his body just a bit leaner, less toned, with more weight than the absolute minimum, though not by much. He was strong and fast by any measure, he just did not _look_ as flawlessly toned as Beryl did. Only in comparison could he ever be found lacking, and it would be a very picking person to notice that.

Of course, it was much easier to see Spark's physique, since it wasn't hidden behind black scales that confused the eye and hid shadows. His golden scales and skin glowed in the noon sun, revealing every detail where Beryl's details were hidden and needed to be guessed at. Also helpful was his lack of scars; compared to his brother, he was an almost clean slate.

Almost. Ember didn't _like_ one little detail he could clearly see, but he made sure to add it anyway. The scales under Spark's eyes were small and misaligned, and there was a little patch of raw yellow-gold skin just beneath each eye that should host the edge of a scale, but didn't. It was almost unnoticeable, only obvious if one was told what to look for, but it was there. Spark was scarred, just in a different way.

On the bright side, those little patches of past issues were the only thing even remotely close to wrong with Spark's face, and Ember chose to linger on the other parts of him in the drawing, leaving the mismatched scales with the bare minimum of detail. His eyes, in particular, were doable in just charcoal, having almost pure white irises streaked with silver. They were striking in real life, and that look translated to parchment with no difficulty at all.

Of course, in drawing the eyes he had to choose a facial expression, and since he was working from a constantly bemused model, he ended up depicting Spark with an expression of faint surprise, or possibly wonder.

"Can I turn this way?" Spark asked, moving as he spoke.

Ember set the parchment down on the ground, stuck the charcoal pencil in his pocket, and shifted to his dragon form to more easily respond. "Yes, it's done. You can look at it."

"Finally," Beryl rumbled. "His squirming did not ruin it?"

"No, just made it take longer," Ember snorted. Spark had walked over and was leaning down to stare at the parchment, his eye so close to it that if he blinked, the breeze might shift it.

"I like it," Spark declared, straightening up. "Can I see the others when they are done?"

"They'll be up on display, yes," Ember confirmed. He was committed to doing the rest now, not that he minded. The next one he had in mind would be particularly interesting.

O-O-O-O-O

"And when you say draw, you mean you'll be making lines that look like me?" Pearl asked curiously.

"Like those," Ember said, nodding toward his workspace. The two pictures he had already done were there. Beryl's eyes and Spark's entire body still needed color, if he was going to do that, but other than that they were done.

"Oh, those," Pearl rumbled, padding over to have a closer look. "I kind of get it? They do not really look like anything to me unless I squint. Maybe if I saw them being done."

"I was going to draw you next," Ember said. "Maybe you can watch when I do whoever is after you?" He'd like to let her watch as he drew her, but there didn't seem to be any way to look at her and have her looking over his shoulder at the same time.

"Maybe," Pearl agreed happily. "Or maybe I will get it when I see me. Can you do it now?"

"Sure," Ember agreed, shifting and grabbing his supplies. "Pose however you want."

"Is this good?" she asked, laying on her stomach and staring at him with wide eyes, her paws neatly tucked under her head. Her tail swayed from side to side behind her, and her overall look was one of patient fascination.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed. It was a different pose, he had done Beryl and Spark standing up, but he liked the challenge.

Ember arranged his parchment and drawing board in his lap, settled down across from her, and got to work.

Pearl was slim, but rapidly packing on muscle as she adjusted to life outside of the valley where she was raised. She had gone from doing nothing on a daily basis to flying regularly, hunting for fun, wrestling and learning to fight whenever possible, _and_ running around with the fledglings on occasion. As a result, she was still disproportionate, with a little extra weight around her stomach and hindquarters, and small, developing muscles in her legs, giving her a very different silhouette for him to draw, especially as she was laying down.

All of that was _before_ factoring in the subtle little differences she had as a light wing. Her tailfins had a smattering of tiny scales along the ridges, and overall she had a much _tighter_ arrangement of scales, revealing far less of the white skin beneath them. Her red glint dusted over the pure white of her body, glimmering as he moved his head, reflecting the light in small ways. He didn't know how he was going to translate that to a static image; it would be something to experiment with later, on less precious pieces of parchment.

For now, he depicted her as pure white with mostly blank eyes, so as to add their deep ruby-red coloration later. Her teeth were visible between her slightly parted lips, and the lines between them were the last detail he added, aside from sketching in the visible part of her only scar, the jagged line across her chest.

"Done," he said softly, turning the parchment around to show her.

"Now I see it," she exclaimed. "Also, I like posing for you. Can you draw in your dark wing form?"

"Maybe," he said. "Probably, but I'd need a huge piece of parchment and some other things. Why?" He liked the idea, it was something to try after he was done with this particular project, and maybe Pearl could try it too-

"Because right now it is just nice to get attention, but I cannot help thinking that it would be positively alluring to have you staring at me for so long in the right body," she purred seductively.

Ember dropped his pencil, retrieved it, and quickly put his drawing of her on the board with the others. He wasn't physically attracted to her in this body, a quirk of how his situation worked, but he knew he would be missing out if he didn't switch.

His things put away, he shifted and purred at her, mentally consigning his next real drawing to some time later on. "Let's see if I can scratch something out on the shore," he offered.

O-O-O-O-O

"No." Storm snorted and shook her head. "Why should I stand still for you? I see no point in it."

"I want to draw you," Ember repeated. "To look at you and then make something look _like_ you." He didn't know how to make it any clearer than that. It didn't help that there wasn't actually a word for draw in the language Furies spoke, so he had been forced to make one up.

"Ember, go away," Storm growled. "I am busy. Lightning and Thunder are off somewhere, I need-"

"They're with Pearl," Ember interrupted. "I thought she told you that?" Pearl had volunteered to ensure Storm had no excuses, and taken all three fledglings into the forest with Spark for a game.

"She might have," Storm grumbled, looking away from him.

"So you can repay the favor by standing still for a little while?" he pressed, capitalizing on his momentary advantage. He wanted a drawing of Storm, to ensure he had one of everybody, and he suspected she was just being difficult, not actually opposed to the concept.

"What are you going to do with this thing that looks like me when you are done making it?" she asked suspiciously. "It cannot _do_ anything, right?"

"What do you think it could do?" Ember asked, bemused.

"I do not know, and I do not like the idea," she growled.

"It does nothing. It's just smudges of burnt wood on a piece of flat wood," he said reassuringly. "That's all there is to it."

"So why do you want it?" she exclaimed.

"Because it looks nice," he retorted, losing his patience. "And I could have drawn one in the time it took us to get this far arguing. If you really don't want one, fine, but I was going to do one of everybody and put them all together, and it will look weird if you are missing."

"Everyone, including Lightning and Thunder? And Thorn and Herb?" Storm asked.

"Yes, them too."

"And I would be the only one missing…" she mused.

Ember declined to mention that she could forbid him from drawing her children. He'd listen if she actually told him not to draw her, or them, he wasn't going to get into a real fight over this, but right now Storm was just being obnoxious, and he _would_ fight her on that. Hopefully, this got through to her.

"Fine, but make it quick, and make sure my likeness is right next to theirs," Storm growled. "And Pearl, and our parents… Put me in the middle."

"Sure," he agreed. He'd already planned to have her with her children and Pearl, the latter because the two were good friends, and it would take little to no rearranging to comply with her demand.

"Make your thing fast," she repeated. "It will look like how I stand?"

"Yes," he said, shifting to his human form, which already held the necessary supplies.

"Good," she snarled, crouching and baring her teeth, looking for all the world like an angry, defensive, violent predator.

Ember didn't object, partially because doing so would require shifting back and would undoubtedly start a renewed argument, and partially because he thought it was a pretty good pose for her, given her personality.

Storm was a strong, active dragon who had recently been saddled with a lot of new responsibility, and it showed. She had a slightly haggard look about her, her frills and ears drooping more loosely than they should, and her tail flat on the ground. Physically, she was still in great shape, which was more than he could have said for himself in the months after Beryl's hatching to join Spark in taking up his time, but the strain of keeping up with two lively fledglings showed in how she held herself, posing aggressively or not.

But that was just her pose; her coloration was another matter entirely, still the same blue core fading out to grey at the edges. Her ears and frills were entirely grey while her face was a smoky blue, giving her a severe, complex appearance that he wasn't entirely sure he could ever have conveyed without color. As it was, he had to draw carefully and mark what parts would be which color. Her tailfins and tail had a lot of grey and blue intermixing, while her torso and legs were mostly blue with grey edges. She would require more colors than anyone else so far, grey, blue, and teal for her eyes.

He spent less time on her than he had on anyone else, making shorthand marks on the parts that were easily completable from memory, and only detailing the bits that were unique to her. He drew so fast that he was done with the essentials before she complained, which was an achievement in and of itself.

"Done," he said proudly, before realizing she wouldn't understand. He shifted back and said it again.

"Good," She growled, turning her back on him. "It looks good."

"It will, once I've given it color," he said. "You are by far the most colorful of those I've drawn."

"Thanks, I guess," she rumbled. "It will look good above Thunder and Lightning?"

"Like a Dam protecting her young," he said, guessing what she was going for.

"I like that," she huffed. "Sorry for giving you a hard time, it did not take long. Tell Pearl I say thanks, and will return the favor once you two get on with it and have an egg."

"That might be soon," Ember rumbled. They weren't trying too hard, but if one didn't come along by the end of the warm season, they would probably get serious and make it happen.

O-O-O-O-O

Later that day, his mind still on young ones, Ember sought out Pearl and Spark, bringing with him plenty of fish.

"For us?" Pearl asked once he found her. "Or for the little ones?"

"I brought enough for both, and I hoped to use their share to keep them still long enough to draw," he admitted.

"All at once?" she asked, purring as Spark appeared, shepherding Thunder, Lightning, and Silva out of the trees.

"That's the idea." He had gotten in some practice drawing quickly with Storm, and he thought he could manage it. Light wings weren't _easier_ to draw, but they were much simpler subjects, white without coloration to throw him off. They made getting shadows right very simple.

The moment the fledglings tucked into the fish pile he shifted. They didn't even notice, too busy alternatively stuffing themselves and squabbling playfully over choice bits.

He quickly sketched out a general pose, leaving a blank where the fish would be, and concentrated on getting their defining features down, one by one.

Silva, with her sky blue eyes and silver glint, was every bit the normal fledgling, young and playful. She bore no marks, no defining features, and aside from the normal chubby limbs and overlarge head, was a very simple subject.

The same could be said for Thunder and Lighting, save that they bore a few little scars from constantly roughhousing and biting each other. The ragged edge of Thunder's tailfins would not last, and neither would the scrapes down Lightning's side, but Ember got them anyway, capturing an image of sibling rivalry, a rarity since Fury children were almost always a few season-cycles apart and thus not at the right ages to have a rivalry of any kind. Thunder and Lightning had something special, and he felt that should be reflected in the picture.

Aside from that, they were easy, fledglings with nothing but a glint and eye color to differentiate them from Silva. Thunder had cobalt blue eyes and a dark blue glint that didn't quite match, and Lightning sported identically yellow eyes and glint, all of which took him a few quickly jotted runes to record for later.

In his drawing, as in real life in front of him, Silva tugged on one end of a long, floppy fish, and Thunder and Lightning pulled the other, working together to combat the slightly older fledgling.

Ember put his things away and shifted, to help Pearl clean them up and get them back to their parents, already thinking about the last two dragons on his list. If he was lucky, he could get them before sunset tonight.

O-O-O-O-O

Thorn nodded as if she understood perfectly. "Sounds good," she said sagely.

"You understand?" he asked incredulously. Aside from Beryl, who had already figured out what drawing was and what it entailed, he'd needed to give a lengthy explanation to every other person he'd asked up to this point.

"No, but you seem to, and we can look at what you come up with," Herb offered, circling around Thorn to lie at her side, his good eye facing her.

"Okay, this should be quick," Ember promised. Silva was sleeping in the corner of the cave, in a place he recalled occupying himself long ago. He knew they wouldn't want to leave her there alone for too long, even in the middle of the hot season, when it was almost impossible for her to get cold.

"Take your time," Thorn said supportively. "We are not going anywhere."

Ember nodded in understanding, shifted, and got to work.

Thorn was first, her grey scales easily translating into charcoal smudges even before he added shading. She was not showing any signs of her advancing age yet, and could easily be mistaken for a much younger female, and a fit one at that. Her broad chest spoke of strong lungs, something he remembered from his childhood. Her roars could go on forever, or so it had seemed back then, and her light purple eyes carried an intensity that he couldn't fully convey in any medium, though he tried.

Herb, lying next to her with a loving gaze fixed on her, was not in such perfect shape. The vertical scar running across the left side of his head was a huge feature, though Ember wished it wasn't, something that could not be ignored. The milky, unfocused mess of a yellow eye the slash had created was even worse. They were old wounds, mostly ignored now, and his Sire didn't seem to be overly bothered by them, but they didn't look good.

Ember drew them anyway, taking it upon himself to give Herb a regal posture, though in reality he was slumping a little. He did the head, then focused on Herb's body, on his light green coloration, his strong front legs and unusually short tail.

By the time he was done, he was happy with how his drawing looked, even with Herb's injury on full display. It wasn't diminished, he hadn't hid it, but seeing it all in context made it feel less severe. Herb was happy, it didn't bother him, and the painful event that had brought it about was long since relegated to the past.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember stood in front of the wall, looking at the collage of images he had assembled. There was a conspicuous blank spot near the middle.

"It's missing you," Pearl hummed, coming up behind him. "I like the one you did of Thorn and Herb. Can we do one like that?"

"I have to see myself, that's the problem," he admitted. "Maybe once I figure that out."

"Have you tried looking in water?" she suggested.

"I'd have to shift every time I wanted to draw a line, and then shift back the moment I need to look up and reassure myself as to what I really look like," he fretted. He never drew himself. There had been no point back when he was a lanky teen with nothing going for him, and now he wasn't capable of both looking and drawing at the same time.

"Maybe you could draw with me describing you?" Pearl offered. "Let's try."

"Normal drawing, in human form," he clarified.

"Yes, normal," she snorted. "I want to see you up there with the rest of us."

"Okay, we can try it," he agreed, shifting and sitting down at his roughly assembled desk. Parchment and charcoal pencil were easily arranged, and he sketched out a simple outline of a Fury body, but that was as far as he could go on his own. What did he look like?

"Give him a bigger chest," Pearl advised, leaning over his shoulder to stare at what he had so far. "And bigger hindquarters."

"I'm trusting this is accurate," Ember remarked, rubbing out those parts of the outline and enlarging them slightly. He assumed she meant with muscle, not fat. _Hopefully_ she meant muscle, otherwise his ego was about to take a huge hit. He was pretty sure he was at least as fit as Beryl, but it was hard to know for sure.

"It is, I know you up and down," she declared seriously. "Curl in the tailfins a bit, you always hold them curled up when you are thinking about me."

"I'm thinking about you in this picture?" he asked.

"It's the way I remember you best," she confirmed. "Okay, now tilt the head to the side and give yourself some eyes, you have those."

"I hadn't noticed," he said dryly. "What expression?"

"Lost in your thoughts, happy ones," she said as if it was obvious. "Not too happy, or you would have to add another part and we would not be able to explain to Silva what was going on."

"Have you gotten more vulgar since I met you?" Ember asked, laughing under his breath as he gave himself somewhat unfocused pupils and a dopey pull to his mouth, like he was holding in a grin.

"Yes, and Storm is proud of it. Now do the wings, spread a little like you are always half about to take off and go flying, and make sure your claws are in. Not your teeth, though."

"Got it." He was getting into this now, enjoying the challenge of depicting someone he couldn't claim to know by sight. He had only really seen himself in one particularly traumatic out of body experience, and back then he hadn't known it was soon to _be_ himself, and that was all just too complicated to use as a reference.

"This is taking shape," Pearl purred, knocking her head against his and almost knocking him out of the chair, though she didn't seem to notice. "I cannot believe I did not see myself in these before, you make it look so real. Put more muscle under the scales around the stomach, you have plenty there…"

Ember spent a little while redrawing that part, trying to balance Pearl's description with what he knew of Night Fury anatomy, so that the result wasn't unrealistic.

"That's good," she purred. "Some more little details, but I think that's it. You can give yourself orange scales and yellow-orange eyes?"

"I'm waiting to do the color later, but I definitely will," he promised. He wasn't sure if his makeshift dyes would cover all of the shades he now needed to recreate, but he could figure something out. "This is me?"

"That's you," she purred. "Is it good enough?"

"If this is accurate, yes, it's more than good enough." He _liked_ drawing to her instructions, too, which was an unexpected bonus to doing things this way. They would have to do it again with other subjects.

"So this goes here," he added, picking up the parchment and sticking it to the wall by Pearl's image.

"Are we missing anyone?" Pearl asked, looking up at all the drawings. "That is everyone who is here, I think… And I do not want to add my parents."

"Yeah," he murmured, thinking along similar lines. He might try to draw Stoick from memory someday, but that would be a whole other sort of challenge, and Valka… Well, actually, he _could_ draw her, but that should wait until he saw her again, since that was an option.

That line of thinking led him to Storm, also who had one more parent, in blood if not in spirit. There was no way Ember would ever draw Third…

But Second? Ember thought about it. He could remember the other rmale. Strong, orange eyes much like his own, sky-blue scales marred by an assortment of scars-

"Scars," he blurted out. "We didn't give me any scars."

"Right," Pearl barked, thankfully rearing back first to spare his ears. "I forgot about those. You have so many, and they look nice, too. But I can't really remember exactly what they all look like."

"I might have to look at a reflection for that part," he decided. It would be doable, so long as he was only copying that single set of details, not trying to draw himself from scratch. It did seem like that would be the last thing to do, but he had a nagging feeling that he was forgetting someone…

He looked back at the array of drawings, and a jab of melancholy made itself felt as he realized who was missing.

Flint. Beryl and Spark's Dam, his first mate, wasn't up there. She wasn't around to draw, but he could remember her well enough to get a rough outline, strong, sharp, grey scales and eyes...

If he was going to add her. He turned his head to look at Pearl, who was gazing at the images, unaware of the quandary he had stumbled upon. Would she mind? He could put Flint above Beryl and Spark, not next to himself, it would still be weird but at least he was acknowledging her existence. As it was, he felt like he would be intentionally leaving her out if he didn't at least bring it up.

"There's one more I might be able to do," he said slowly. "But I don't know if I should, or if I even want to. It would have to be from memory, and it might bother you."

"Might bother me?" Pearl asked innocently. "Who? Second? He would not bother me so much as he might bother Storm. I'd leave him off if I were you. This is us _now_ , right? And he's not here."

"Us now," Ember repeated.

"Yeah. Maybe you could do another one with the people who might be here if things were different?" she proposed. "Second, and your human Sire, and Flint, and that bossy other dragon Vithvarandi killed that you knew, and Gold, maybe." She shook her head. "I don't think I would have wanted him around, but I never got a chance to find out, and I bet Storm could have helped whip him into shape."

Ember nodded, surprised that she had so casually slipped Flint in there. "That wouldn't bother you?"

"Why would it bother me to remember the people we cared for, or might have given the chance?" she asked pragmatically. "I like it. One grouping of everyone that is here, and one of those who couldn't be here."

"Sounds good," he sighed, the awkward question resolved. "That's the last of it, then. I'll start on those some other day." Maybe during the winter, when they were stuck inside a lot of the time. Or maybe he'd go find a village somewhere and bring back some supplies to tinker with over the winter, and use those to pass the time.

Whatever he did, he was glad to be back in touch with the part of him that enjoyed drawing and creating.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Huh, that had more of a story than I originally intended; it was actually coherent. Anyway, this isn't the only time we're going to see our** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **set of protagonists in this time period, so anyone wishing for more info on their surroundings, their day-to-day life, etc, can wait and see. I have a** _**lot** _ **more material for NSSA, it's just that some of it is spoiler locked, some (12+ completed chapters and counting) are locked into incomplete arcs of their own, and some need revision before posting. Lots of those are coming as soon as I can free them from their various stages of incompleteness.**

**This also isn't the end of chapters intended solely to group visual descriptions all in one place; I'll have another big one to do at the end of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **, though that's looking to be at least a year from now.**


	6. Lily - Confusion (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **and aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **up to chapter 25.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background:** _**Deadly-Bagel** _ **is entirely to blame for putting this idea in my head. It has too much potential to ignore, so here, have an AU mystery / absurd alternate reality one-shot.**

* * *

It was a day like any other, only a little more miserable than most. Lily lay against the far wall of the side cavern, waiting for sleep to take her. She had spent all day with the hatchlings, and now they were back with their Dams, who were also dozing.

As far as Lily knew, nothing had happened that day, but she had a feeling that she had missed _something._ There were no disturbances, Crystal had reported a totally normal hot-season day, but still, she felt like something had changed.

The clicking of claws in the corridor outside alerted her, and she cracked an eyelid open warily.

Sure enough, to her rising disgust, Claw poked his head into the chamber a moment later, his eyes immediately landing on her and Crystal. She mentally prepared to block out what was surely to come next, it was inevitable once he actually showed up-

Then he sighed heavily, as if bothered by something, and withdrew without a word.

Lily waited for what felt like a very long time, but he didn't come back. Even once she believed he had changed his mind for some unknown reason, it took her a long time to relax enough to fall asleep.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was walking out of the caverns the next morning when she heard a very, very strange argument. She couldn't help but stop where she was, hearing something she had never heard before.

"Why _not_?" a female demanded incredulously. "Tonight is my night. I was looking forward to it!"

"I am not in the mood," Claw repeated seriously.

"But you will come to me tomorrow night, not Cressa?" the female asked. "It is not fair to skip me!"

"I do not… Look, it is not entirely by choice," Claw growled. "I had an accident last night."

Lily was amazed that he was actually giving an answer; the mental model she had of him in her head would have said 'I'm alpha and you're my mate, stop questioning me,' and left. Claw didn't explain himself, not like this-

But he was speaking again, even now. "I went out to relieve myself, tripped over a rock, and hurt it," Claw said quickly, a low growl underlying his words. "That is all. I will not be sleeping with anyone until it is better."

"You… What?" his mate said, caught entirely off guard by the seemingly legitimate excuse. Lily found herself believing it, despite how ridiculous it was; Claw simply was not the sort of dragon to tell such an embarrassing story voluntarily, let alone make one up when he had so many other options at his disposal if he wanted to avoid this particular female.

None of this made any sense, but she believed her own ears, and as far as she could tell it only made sense if he really had sprained the most unfortunate of places. She held in a rude laugh, if only because she didn't want to be caught eavesdropping.

"I told you once already," Claw growled. "Spread the word among my other mates, I am not having this conversation again."

"I will," the female promised eagerly. Lily suspected nothing would have _stopped_ her from telling her friends, regardless of whether Claw wanted it to happen or not. "But… You could still _just_ sleep in my side-cavern, with me?" she offered.

"So long as it really is just sleeping," Claw huffed irritably.

Lily heard the sound of paws moving and bolted, quickly putting herself out of sight down the corridor. She slowed to a leisurely walk a moment later in case anyone saw her, but inside she was still running.

If nothing else, this at least explained Claw's hesitance the night before…

Lily shook her head, dismissing the idea. This was too ridiculous to be believed. It made no sense for him to lie, but it made almost as little sense for him to have told his mate outright. Maybe the pain was addling his mind, or for that matter the humiliation… Or maybe there was something even more embarrassing he was covering up for.

She resolved to keep a much closer eye on Claw for the next few days. Something was going on, and as much as she liked the idea that he wouldn't be violating her for the time being, she wasn't going to assume that was all and take it without questioning the reasons behind it. Especially as, no matter what answer she came up with, _how_ he had handled the conversation still did not fit. Something more really was going on, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

O-O-O-O-O

That evening, Lily heard the news several times over. Once from Crystal, gleefully, once from Honey with a whine, and several times over from the many females lurking in the main chamber, discussing it with varying levels of dismay and curiosity. She heard a surprising number of Claw's mates openly wondering whether it was a lie meant for only certain females, and eyeing other groups suspiciously.

Claw was nowhere to be seen, and once again Lily found herself feeling confused. He still was not acting like she had come to expect. Rampant rumors and speculation about him would not go unnoticed, and she knew he needed to be in control. This was not control, not his version of it.

She found excuses to linger in the main chamber, bouncing Burble on her tail, and waited for Claw to show up. She had to see how he managed the speculation, how he reacted, and if worst came to worst she could duck out with Burble as her legitimate excuse. She had positioned herself by the entrance, so as to be out of danger in five steps if it came down to outright fleeing something. Not that she expected it to, but with Claw it was best to plan for the worst.

When Claw did arrive, the gossiping females all around the chamber fell silent at once, save for a few who didn't notice. Lily didn't think most of them dreaded his attention like she did, but anyone would think twice about talking about their mate's embarrassing accident right in front of him.

"Well, it is common knowledge," Claw grumbled into the sudden silence, addressing the obvious immediately. "Sorry to disappoint you all." He didn't sound very sorry, more annoyed than anything.

With that, he walked through the chamber and into the corridor, leaving them alone. A trail of intermittent bloody droplets followed him, dripping from his hindquarters.

Lily narrowed her eyes and stared at one of the closest drops. It was blood, sure enough, but why would he be bleeding there a whole day after the injury? Was it really that serious? She knew certain wounds did not stop bleeding for a while, depending on where they were inflicted, but Pyre had neglected to tell her whether that part of the male anatomy was one such place…

Again, she was struck by the confusion, the same blend of believable logic and unbelievable actions. He was legitimately injured, either by an actual accident or by an intentional act to prove a lie, but why would he admit it? Why not just twist it to serve himself? Why not chastise his mates for gossiping about it?

"We should keep this to ourselves," one of the older females suggested, breaking the awkward silence.

A general murmur of agreement met that statement, but Lily was not fooled in the slightest, and the guilty faces all around the chamber confirmed her cynical guess. The news was already _well_ on the way to being known to everyone in the pack.

She would have to wait and see how things changed in response to that, but she was beginning to suspect that Claw would not handle it at all as she would have assumed. Something was deeply wrong with her estimation of him, or something was missing from her understanding, something big.

O-O-O-O-O

A few days later, Lily lay by the pond, seemingly busy sunning herself. Crystal was close by, actually doing nothing more than she seemed to be, adding to the illusion.

In reality, Lily was far more invested in watching Claw; the sun's baking rays on her body were just a bonus to make the long stakeout more pleasant. It was hot out, almost unbearably so, but even in the most intolerable heat, just laying in the sunlight was pleasant.

That same heat was what drove most of the pack to crowd around the pond today, and what _would_ usually cause petty squabbles, and exacerbate arguments into full-on fights on occasion. She had seen it happen before, and she had seen how Claw, already very short on temper, would roar the participants down.

Not today. Today, Claw roamed the fringes of the crowd, watching vigilantly in a manner very, very unlike himself. He had a few males with him, but they crept behind him. Lily would guess that they felt honored to be picked to assist him directly, but also confused by his activity, and too cowed to question it.

A hissing match broke out near Lily, and she flinched as a tail slapped near her face. She hadn't even noticed the growing tension right next to her, she was so focused on Claw, but now she could not help but hear an undoubtedly heat-fueled spat between two females about sprawling wings and tails.

Claw circled around the pond, walking quickly. Both females faltered and fell silent when they saw him.

He nodded and continued on his way as if nothing had happened.

"I see what you mean," Crystal murmured to her as one of the females stood and left. "This is weird."

"It only took you a few days," Lily snorted, glad her friend saw what she did. Claw should have leaped into the squabble, or at the very least, he would not have left well enough alone once they stopped. Once he got involved, he always made very sure that someone was disciplined, either with strong words or an actual punishment. He didn't have a light paw, that just wasn't who he was.

"Think his injury affected _both_ heads?" Crystal asked vulgarly.

"Maybe," Lily said, taking the possibility seriously. At this point, she couldn't rule anything out.

O-O-O-O-O

The days passed slowly, and to Lily they passed with a subtle fog over them, the fog of confusion. Claw continued to be proactive, light-pawed, amiable, and best of all, chaste.

Lily could not have been more disturbed by such seemingly positive behaviour, and she kept waiting for the other paw to drop, though she had no clue what that other paw would be. The only possible explanation she could think of for even _some_ of this was that he had caught wind of a possible insurrection, and then inexplicably decided to thwart it by being a better person, but even that did not explain his injury. His mates almost all wanted him to continue mating with them regularly.

Sooner or later, she thought to herself, he would go back to normal, or otherwise reveal his true intentions. The vile creature who mated his own daughter, killed his sons, and murdered on a whim could not possibly just decide to turn over a new leaf for no reason, and Claw considered himself sly. It had to be a trick to some end, likely one that furthered his own twisted desires.

But even suspecting that, it was hard to keep a wary, cynical eye on him at all times, and Lily welcomed the days when she was in charge of Burble and Wax. Having a responsibility that stopped her from watching Claw took the weight off of her for a little while.

"Up you go," she hummed, lifting Wax onto her back next to Burble. Crystal and Honey had already left to go flying, and she planned on taking both hatchlings out into the central cavern. They were too young to go running around with the bigger fledglings yet, but letting them crawl around and socialize with other hatchlings their own size was important, and she knew several would be there today.

Her tail curled up behind her as she strained to keep a fin on both fledglings, steadying them as she walked. They were still sleepy, having just woken up. She wouldn't be attempting this if they were both fully awake. One would probably shove the other right off in a squabble before she even made it out of the side-cavern.

As it was, even with them lying motionless, most of her attention had to go to balancing them. She made it to the main chamber without incident, and was greeted with the cries of hatchlings and fledglings.

She was also greeted with an ominous sight, one as worrying as it was strange, at least to her.

Claw was sitting in the middle of the chamber, watching the young ones playing. Several were tussling in front of him, and even as she stared, he stuck out a paw and separated them.

"No teeth," he chided. "Nobody wins that one."

"Over here, Lily!" a female called out, sticking out a wing to catch her attention. There were three hatchlings in a circle, staring sleepily at each other, along with their respective Dams. That was the group she had meant to join.

But that was before she saw Claw here, of all places. Unlike his other behavior, this had a very, very dark undertone to it, at least in her eyes. She knew what he had done to Pearl, and she knew that he had begun doing it before she was officially an adult. It was no leap of the imagination to think that he might have an unnatural, twisted liking for females younger than was right, and while the ones wrestling in front of him were male, he was paying far too much attention to them. He had never even _bothered_ to socialize with his own young before now.

Claw looked up, and their eyes locked for a moment. He betrayed nothing with his steady eyes, not the slightest hint of cruelty or suspicion.

Lily hoped that her gaze showed only confusion and surprise, and she quickly broke the look, hurrying to join the group of Dams and add Wax and Burble to the mix. She shuffled around to ensure she could watch Claw out of the corner of her eye. This felt like it might be the thing he was working toward, the sinister end goal of his odd actions, but it still didn't fit right. Once again, not everything supported that. His actions didn't all line up with a goal or intention.

"Crystal and Honey, right?" one of the Dams asked her.

"Yes," Lily confirmed shortly. She knew they were only breaking from the normal to acknowledge her because Crystal had set this up, and it would be extremely awkward to refuse her, or to act like Lily didn't exist when she attended in Crystal's place. That didn't seem quite so important at the moment.

Lily knew she couldn't let Claw harm another fledgling. She didn't want to let him harm anyone, but the young ones were on another level, and she was on much safer ground publicly protecting them if it came to that. She watched him closely.

But if it was his intention to prey on them, he hid it far too well. She could see nothing in his distant, impersonal, but attentive gaze. He corrected the males on their play-fighting, broke them up whenever they got too rough, and avoided confirming either as the winner in anything, a tactic she knew well enough, but was surprised to see him using.

If anything, she thought she saw some awkwardness there. A distance that wouldn't exist between a normal Sire and his children.

"Okay," Claw said. "Your turn is up."

"Turn?" Lily murmured, still watching him.

"He's taking turns watching all of his children," one of the Dams supplied helpfully. "Yours might have to wait, there is a line."

Sure enough, though Lily scarcely believed her eyes, the two males were retrieved, and two more of a slightly younger age set in front of Claw by eager Dams. One nuzzled him, and he returned the gesture absently, but his focus was on the young ones.

Then he looked over at her. She flicked her eyes down to Wax and Burble, but she knew he had caught her watching.

Nothing came of it. When she looked up again, he was not paying her any attention. It was like she didn't exist, which she would vastly prefer if it was genuine.

Burble pawed at Wax's nose, and Lily stuck her paw in to stop him before he provoked Wax into a slow, clumsy tussle. They would inevitably roll over the other hatchlings if that happened.

As she did, she couldn't help but wonder if Claw really was doing exactly what it looked like, and trying to connect with the many, many children he had never before cared about.

Surely not. But she could do nothing about it aside from watching him and not letting him go anywhere alone with a child.

To that end, Lily lingered in the chamber longer than she might otherwise have. Burble and Wax cooperated by playing nice with the other hatchlings, giving her ample opportunity to watch for the first sign that Claw was making a move… Which never happened.

"Next," Claw called out, patting a very young female on the head with his paw, a gesture that was almost awkwardly impersonal, given she was his daughter.

"You go," the same Dam from before urged Lily. "Nobody is coming, this is your chance."

Lily shook her head and said nothing. No matter how benign he seemed at the moment, she was not voluntarily taking Burble or Wax into his presence.

The next Dam came, and the chance was gone.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily stalked her prey from afar, gliding in the warm air and keeping a close eye on Claw as he wandered the valley. Another anomaly, he was not spending nearly as much time on the plateau nowadays.

He also wasn't doing much at the moment, but she was fine with that. Long-term spying had a lot of downtime, and in the boring moments she went over her theories.

The first, most obvious one was that this was all a ploy. It was the simplest answer, but also the one that contradicted itself far too much for her liking. It made no sense, and she knew she was more cunning than Claw.

Claw stopped to speak to a mated couple on a rock. The conversation appeared amiable, and Lily had spent enough time eavesdropping to know that it was indeed just light conversation. He did that now, too.

The second possibility was that Claw had injured himself somehow, and in taking that injury was being affected by his body. She had very little evidence for that, just his initial injury kicking it all off, and a few tales from Pyre about parasites and how mood swings can be signs of sickness sometimes. He was still recovering from his injury, something she was thankful for, but it was suspicious that nobody had ever seen it. Maybe he was infected with some rare disease that imparted morals.

Claw bid the mated couple farewell and took to the air, flying much lower than Lily. He settled into a large circle, obviously doing the same thing she was, watching the valley. Lily had no fear of being noticed; a lot of people were in the air today.

The third, even more unlikely option, was that this was the work of some third party. Claw was the obvious point of attack for anyone looking to effect change, she knew that from experience. Also in favor of this was the total lack of a rational explanation for his actions, assuming he was doing something meant to advance his own goals. If the goal was _against_ his best interests, imposed from an outside source, all of this could be seen as him enacting policy decisions given to him by another.

That had its own refutation, though. She could not see a method to do such a thing to Claw. He had enough power that threatening to reveal his worst crimes was pointless, and many of them were open knowledge already. She knew of no way to physically or mentally control him, and it _was_ him. His scent was the same, he knew the names of everyone around him perfectly, he remembered things told to him long before he had begun acting strange. If anything, he was _better_ at remembering things now.

And of course, though she didn't give it much weight even compared to the others, there was the possibility that he had experienced a true change of heart. That was about as likely as fish flying out of the ocean, growing massive, and chasing the pack out of the valley tomorrow.

Claw descended, landing on the plateau and speaking to the females who lounged there. He had opened it up to anyone who wanted it when he was not there, but only his mates were comfortable taking his word on that.

Lily flapped her wings a few times, regaining the height she had slowly lost as she glided, and contemplated the problem for the thousandth time in the last dozen days. She still couldn't make heads or tails of it, and she wished more than anything that Pyre was around to help her investigate.

A familiar sadness washed over her, now tainted with even more confusion and anger. The same heartless male who had brutally murdered Pyre was now making overtures to his many children, easing up, being more easygoing, and generally acting like someone far less evil. Why couldn't this have happened in time to save the ones she loved? The Claw of today would not have killed Pyre. She didn't know what he would do, but it wouldn't be that, because that was what Claw had done and this new Claw was not like the old one.

Lily let herself lose sight of Claw, and drifted out over the mountains, toward the sea. As great as it was to not have Claw forcing himself on her every so often, it made her confused and angry a lot, because if he was capable of acting decently _now,_ he could have done it in the past. She usually forced the feelings down, but her surveillance wasn't revealing anything helpful, so she had no reason to continue.

She had watched him for days on end, tracked his movements at night, spied on him randomly. He never let up, never lapsed into his former self, and it all seemed so _natural,_ like he had put on a different personality and was now trying to merge the two without making it obvious.

It made a depressing sort of sense to her that Claw had so easily confounded her, even now. If she was being pessimistic, it was totally predictable. She had been naive and unable to see his perversion for far too long, and now she had been totally blindsided again the moment he decided to up his game.

"Hey," a loud female barked from below, "Lily!"

Lily turned midair, initially thinking the voice had come from behind, befuddled by misery and the rising certainty that she didn't know the person speaking to her with such familiarity, that she didn't recognize the voice.

Then she looked down and confirmed that she _definitely_ had no idea who was flying up to meet her.

"Who is asking?" she asked suspiciously, still reeling and trying to understand who the grey and blue mottled female was, or where she came from. The coloration was real, she knew of no way to get such a look from ash or staining plants, but light wings just did not _look_ like that, the female had no glint at all and would have stood out in any crowd. She couldn't be from the valley.

But she also couldn't be a stranger, because she already knew Lily by sight, and knew her name.

"I am," the female said brusquely. "Hey, I come with a question. If Pearl showed up today, would she be assaulted, or anything like that? She told me you would probably know."

All of the pieces to this particular mystery neatly slotted themselves into place in Lily's mind, making a mockery of her inability to solve the mystery of Claw. Pearl had found this _dark wing_ out in the world, they knew each other, and the dark wing was an emissary who was testing the waters for Pearl, though Lily didn't know why Pearl would want to come back.

As to the answer the other female sought? Lily thought for the time it took the dark wing to rise to her altitude and level off beside her. "As safe as I am," she said honestly, "and I cannot promise more than that. I find myself unable to guess at what Claw will do these days, but he is not mating with anyone while he heals, or so he says, and he is taking a more gentle approach for some unknown reason."

"Compared to when Pearl left?" the female pressed.

"Yes," Lily confirmed.

"Sounds weird," the female snorted. "I wanted to kill that rotten piece of dung, but if he will leave well enough alone, I will too. What about Diora?"

"Pearl's Dam?" Lily asked. She had spent some little time meeting Silva, but recently everything else had taken a backseat to figuring out Claw, so she wasn't entirely up to date on that particular situation. "I don't know."

"Good, I might still get a fight today," the female enthused. "The name is Storm, by the way. Pearl and I are probably joining your pack, so long as your alpha does not complain, try to claim her, or abuse anyone else."

"That may not last long," Lily warned.

"Then I will kill him," Storm said easily. "Or my brother will when he catches up. No big deal." With that, she dove, fired a large blast at nothing in particular, and turned to head toward the valley. A light wing rose from the shore to meet her, and they flew together.

Lily had no clue what had just happened, but as she tried to slot it all together in her mind the way she had Storm's connection to herself, she felt a rising annoyance.

"No," she snarled to herself. "There is no way this is all happening naturally." There was some sort of paw at work behind it all. Coincidences did happen, but not like this. Claw sliding into less morally offensive territory, Pearl showing up with a dark wing who just _happened_ to be violent, okay with potentially killing Claw, but also okay with letting him live so long as he continued doing what she could not have known he was already doing? It was far too much for her suspension of disbelief; she knew now that someone was trying to tell a story and fool everyone else into believing it was reality. But that story wasn't perfect, it had cracks that made no sense to an outside observer paying attention.

She didn't know who, or how, or even _why_ , but she knew there was definitely someone orchestrating this.

That realization made her feel better, oddly enough. It both confirmed the 'third party manipulation' theory, and drastically narrowed the plausible candidates for that third party. Now, whoever was in control had to know a dark wing, _and_ had to have some hold over Claw, and maybe Pearl.

Put that way, there were only four suspects. Claw, for he was involved and she would not rule him out, as him intentionally cooperating would answer the 'how' aspect of the problem. Storm, because she was a dark wing with odd morals and an in, in the form of being Pearl's new friend. Pearl, because she had disappeared, and only a while after her disappearance had all of this started.

Those were the obvious three, and then there was the fourth. Someone Lily had never heard of or met before.

She had put a lot of effort into investigating Claw, and if it was some new unknown, she would only find them by watching those working for them, so she really only had two targets to watch.

Both of which were flying over the mountain right now. Lily dropped into a dive to gain some speed, suddenly feeling the need to catch up and see their arrival first-paw. She had a new angle to follow in cracking this frustrating mystery.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily watched from behind the small crowd as Pearl greeted the few friends she had in the pack.

"A lot of things," Pearl said pleasantly, answering the question of what she had been doing by not actually saying anything specific.. "Far too much to explain now, but I can tell the story later."

"You will have a lot of listeners," Crystal said eagerly, ignoring that her question had been brushed off. She didn't suspect anything was amiss.

Lily felt no desire to tell her friend about her strong suspicions, either. Crystal was close to Pearl, and so happy to see her confident and strong. She wouldn't ruin her friend's joy unless it was absolutely necessary, and in the meantime Crystal was doing exactly what Lily would have asked, and innocently inquiring as to her friend's activities.

"It is a good story so that is fine," Storm snorted. She was, in the brief time Lily had observed her, extremely abrasive, but somewhat self-correcting, like she had been told about her flaws and taken to heart that she needed to change. It was an eerie, on-the-nose parallel to how Claw acted in some respects.

"And it will explain your scar?" Mist asked. "I do not remember that."

Pearl sighed and shook her head, seemingly bemused by the memory of the large grey imperfection running across her chest. "Oh, that's not a good story," she laughed deprecatingly. "I made a stupid mistake, that's all."

Lily growled to herself, easily hearing the familiar slur in Pearl's voice, and adding one more fact to her evidence for something more going on. Pearl had to have obtained that accent the intended way, implying the presence of No-scaled-not-prey. If those didn't make it into her story, that was a definite proof that she was lying about some things.

"And how did you meet Storm?" Crystal asked.

"Part of the story," Storm said dismissively. "We teamed up to kill some things, that is all."

"You know that's not right," Pearl countered. "We met because we were captives together."

"But we went on to kill some enemies, so it ends up the same," Storm retorted. "You did not have to start with that." They had an easy repertoire, one Lily believed did come from some sort of friendship. That much was hard to fake and didn't necessarily counter any of her suspicions.

"I have a more important question," a male called out. "Why did you come back, if it was so great out there?"

There was a momentary silence as Pearl considered that. It was apparently a question everyone wanted an answer to, given nobody spoke as they waited. Lily certainly did, though she wouldn't necessarily believe whatever Pearl said.

"I had some unfinished business here," Pearl eventually said. "We might not stay forever, probably not, but I want to leave on good terms with myself, not fleeing the past."

The past, such as Claw and Diora, neither of whom had shown up yet. Lily raised her head above the bulk of the crowd and looked around, but she saw neither of them. They would be antagonistic forces against Pearl, and she counted their absence so far as another suspicious thing.

A dark thought occurred to her. Would Diora make an about-turn like Claw had? Lily didn't know how Pearl or whoever was in charge in the shadows had done it with Claw, so she couldn't rule out the same happening to Diora-

"What is this?" a far too familiar female asked angrily. Lily looked again, and this time saw Diora shoving her way through the small crowd. So much for her suspicious absence, though the same still applied to Claw.

"A triumphant return of a strong, independent female and her friend who is just itching to hurt rude, condescending pieces of rotten slime," Storm said fervently, glaring at Diora as she shoved her way into view. "Please, give me a reason."

"Storm," Pearl snorted, slapping her friend with her tail but not looking all that displeased. "No violence unless she starts it."

"The alpha would never allow it," Diora blustered, glaring at Storm.

"The alpha would have to catch me afterward," Storm said levelly. "I fly fast, so I do not think he could. But you would bleed regardless."

"Like I said, no starting it," Pearl repeated. "What do you want, Diora?"

"To see my returning daughter, but I did not count on being driven away!" Diora cried out, switching from angry to hurt the moment it suited her more to play the victim. She even cowered a little, as if in fear of Storm. Lily would have been impressed if it wasn't so obvious that she was playing for sympathy.

"You see me," Pearl said bluntly, spreading her wings. "Now go away. I did not come back for you."

"You came back for your mate?" Diora asked.

"What?" Pearl snorted, as bemused by the nonsensical question as Lily was. "No. Definitely not. He is no mate of mine."

"And she has a much better male waiting for her," Storm chipped in. "He got sidetracked by something important, but he will be following us once that is done. He will get here eventually."

"And we're not leaving until then at the very earliest, because he knows that we will be waiting here," Pearl confirmed. "So no."

Lily wondered whether any of that was true. On the one paw, promising that this mystery male would eventually arrive put a deadline on it if it was a lie, but on the other, they could easily talk their way out of it if he never showed up. It might even be an exit strategy, a way for them to leave without any other excuse.

And if they were not here for Diora or Claw, why had they returned? Lily smelled rot somewhere in their story.

But for the moment, she was not necessarily against the way they were going about things. She approved of Pearl not letting violence break out, and she definitely approved of keeping Diora away.

Lily resolved to remind Crystal about Silva, and thus inform Pearl by proxy. That would allow her another insight into Pearl's real goals and intentions, just as seeing Claw acknowledge her would. That promised to be an interesting scene.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily found herself lying next to Crystal, watching intently as Pearl played with Burble. It was nearly dusk, and Burble was tiring out, but he was happy to have the full, undivided attention of a new female with new, interesting smells to explore.

Pearl, on the other paw, seemed all too aware of Burble's origins, and kept casting both Crystal and Lily pitying looks. Not as if she was being condescending, just as if she did not know how to approach the subject.

"He's a great hatchling," Lily said, breaking the awkward silence. She wanted to probe how Pearl felt about Claw, and she also wanted to ensure there was nothing wrong between Pearl and Crystal, both for her own reasons, and to help her friend. "He'll have a sibling soon, too. Honey is watching the egg."

"Congratulations?" Pearl offered. "I'm sorry, I don't know how you feel. How both of you feel."

"Better, as of late," Crystal answered honestly. "I love my children, but not the Sire. Thankfully, he has hurt himself. We can only hope it is permanent."

"Permanent and constantly painful," Lily added venomously. There was nobody around the empty rock they had claimed for the moment, and she was beginning to doubt that Claw would even punish her for her spite if he found out.

"Hopefully," Pearl agreed without a trace of insincerity, purring down at Burble. "What's his name, again?"

"I have not picked a name," Crystal admitted sheepishly, looking away. "I wanted to come up with something fitting."

" _I_ call him Burble," Lily declared. "And I will even if Crystal comes up with another name." Crystal had waited too long, and Burble responded to the name she had given him. Another name given later would just confuse him.

"Well, put it like that, and Burble really is his name," Crystal complained. "Did I miss my chance?"

"Yes," Lily said bluntly.

"Oh, fine," Crystal relented. "But if he ever asks me why he has such a silly name, I am putting the blame firmly where it belongs."

"I think it is a cute name," Pearl supplied helpfully. "What about the egg?"

"I am naming him or her the moment they break the shell," Crystal said vehemently. "I am not giving away that privilege twice."

"Sounds like a plan," Pearl laughed. "Oh, look he is getting sleepy." She hummed to Burble, then stepped back to let Crystal take him.

"You do well with children," Lily observed.

"I know nothing about caring for them, but it's easy to play with a fun little one when they are not hungry or crabby or whiny," Pearl snorted. "I'm sure I'll have a lot to learn once I have one of my own."

"Not with Claw?" Crystal asked.

"With Ember, eventually, I hope," Pearl clarified. "The dark wing I was talking about earlier. We are not mates yet, but I think we are well on the way there. He knows I am interested, and I know he is."

"And coming back here does not bother him?" Lily asked innocently. "You know, since you fled Claw."

"Didn't flee, I was kidnapped, but either way, yes, he's very supportive," Pearl said hurriedly. "I don't know exactly when he will get here, it might be a while. Certainly before this time next season-cycle."

"In the meantime, you will be staying here?" Lily looked around pointedly, making a show of examining the valley. "Why?"

"To be able to think about my past without shrinking away and hiding from it," Pearl said soberly. "That's the plan."

Her words hit a little too close for Lily to respond immediately. She _wished_ she could do that, but her troubles were ongoing, just a little stranger now. She couldn't even effectively work to gain supporters against Claw now; it just didn't feel right when Claw was slowly moving away from all of the behaviors she was using to prove he was a bad alpha. She didn't know enough to do the one thing that helped her feel she was moving forward.

"Speaking of Claw, he is coming this way," Crystal warned. "I do not think he knows you are here, though."

"Oh, he knows I am in the valley, Storm delivered the message at some point today," Pearl said idly, her eyes on Burble. "I do not think he will give me any trouble."

"He has spotted us," Crystal reported. She stood and picked Burble up by his scruff. "Burble and I will not be here when he arrives."

"Good idea," Lily agreed. "I'll stay." She was not about to leave now, not when she wanted to see this.

Crystal hopped off the rock, and Lily turned to face the incoming alpha. Claw flew it slowly, gliding as much as actually flying, and stopped a good few rocks away, far enough that voices would need to be raised to be heard.

"You are not here to return to being a mate of the alpha?" Claw asked stiffly.

"Not in the slightest," Pearl growled. "Leave me be, and I will not let Storm kill you, or be tempted to try myself."

"So be it," Claw intoned neutrally. "I will not hold you if you insist."

Lily felt her jaw drop, not only at the strangeness, but at how utterly _unfair_ it was. It was unbelievable, laughable, even, to imagine Claw just letting Pearl go, but then seeing no problem with what he had done to her, his own daughter-

"And what of _me_?" Lily demanded, for once in her life not even thinking about the words pouring out of her mouth. She stood and glared at Claw, utterly committed to her rash course of action. "I wanted nothing less than to be yours! It is against all that is good and right! What of _me_?!"

Claw blinked at her, his eyes narrowing. He said nothing for a long moment, enough time for Lily to reconsider her rash words. She had ruined his image of her as a nonthreatening presence resigned to her fate, and for nothing-

"Then you may consider yourself free, too," Claw said slowly. "If you truly feel that way. I am realizing that I want no mate who does not want me back." His reason rang hollow, but the first part of his statement struck like a blow to the head, a good one, as nonsensical as that was.

Lily belatedly remembered that there was something going on behind all of this, some ulterior presence working the world like a puzzle. She might be playing right into it-

But she found that she couldn't bring herself to care about being manipulated in the moment, not with the prize Claw and his controller were giving away in return. "Announce that to the pack," she demanded shakily, her voice cracking. "Make it official."

"Any who wish to be released from my circle of mates has my permission," Claw said. "I will. You and Pearl make good points." He stared at her with a look she could only interpret as conflicted, moved his paw with a twitch that was restrained so quickly she barely saw it, then turned and flew away.

"Well…" Pearl seemed lost for words. "That happened. Did he hit his head in the time I was gone? Hard, several times, repeatedly?"

"I don't know," Lily almost sobbed. "Tell Crystal." She was sure her friend would immediately take advantage of this inexplicable release, she knew there would be questions, she knew it probably came with a price attached somehow-

But she didn't care. She flung herself into the sky and flew past the mountains, out into the forest, awash in confusion and unexpected relief. She didn't know what was really happening, she still meant to figure it out, but whoever was behind this had just bought a large portion of goodwill from her when she _did_ figure it all out.

Tomorrow, she would struggle to be normal and continue the investigation, because she couldn't stand not understanding what was really going on. But tonight, she was going to celebrate, and mourn, and probably screech a thousand complicated feelings into the surf.

O-O-O-O-O

A few days later, Lily relaxed on a rock she now called her own. It was a small thing, barely suitable for one light wing, and as a result entirely undesirable to anyone else, despite being nice and flat and having a prime position with a view of both the pond and the plateau.

Claw had made it official, just like he said, and with nothing more than a few words addressed to all of his mates in the cavern. He had framed it as only wanting those who actually wanted him back, said that any who did not could leave with no shame and no hard feelings, and pointed to Lily and Pearl as the first two to take his offer.

What had followed was a lot of confusion, some bawling from females getting the wrong idea, and a lot of questions Claw just didn't answer. The important choices had gone entirely unnoticed by most of them.

But when the dust had cleared, Lily was free, and so was Crystal, who had immediately moved back to her parents' rock and made up with her Dam, though apparently that mostly meant agreeing not to talk about Claw in each others' presence. Pearl, of course, had claimed a place with her friend Storm, one on the outskirts of the valley.

But the three of them weren't the only ones to take Claw up on his offer. Lily was mildly surprised to see Pina and Dew moving out together, though those two had only really begun to dislike him on her behalf. She was more surprised to see them picking a rock together, but that made sense once she thought about it.

In total, seven females had left Claw. It was a relatively small number, but Lily suspected there were a few more who would leave once it was clear he really wasn't going to resent those who did… And a few more who would have left if given the option a few moon-cycles ago, but who liked his new attitude enough to stay.

The pack's reception to the move was about as Lily had expected. Confusion, but under that a sense of relief, as if everyone had realized that they no longer needed to ignore an ongoing injustice.

Of course, that was the wrong way of looking at it. Claw had still taken his own daughter as a mate against her will, he had still abused Pearl before she was even an adult. He had still killed young males, and tried to manipulate them into challenging and _letting_ him have a chance to kill them. He was, by any moral standard, still a repulsive monster.

He just wasn't acting like himself anymore, and the one in charge of how he did act was clearly of a very different, far more morally upstanding mindset. But to those who didn't know someone was behind him, it just looked like he was turning over a new leaf, and that was all they cared about.

All in all, Lily was finding herself less worried about the upcoming ceremony than she should have been. It was not that she was not in danger, she would not have been in danger regardless. It was not even that two of the three males of this season-cycle were happily eyeing receptive females, and thus almost certainly not going to challenge.

Less worried did not mean _not_ worried, though, and as the noon sun began its descent, Mist flew over.

"Is there a way to force males to open their mouth and talk?" Mist asked irritably, landing on the ground next to her rock, as it was too small for her to easily land on it while Lily lay sprawled out.

"Not that I know of," Lily said, deciding not to mention that Pyre had told her some dragons had trouble keeping secrets directly after mating. That wasn't the sort of answer Mist was looking for. She scooted to the side and invited Mist up, though it would be crowded.

"No, I'm angry and I want to pace," Mist said bluntly, seeing her shuffling around to make room. "I cornered him and said I wanted to know whether he was going to challenge, and he would not give me a straight answer, aside from saying that he did not want to be my mate."

"He doesn't?" Lily asked.

"Since he knows I will not be forced to go with Claw otherwise, no," Mist huffed. "That is fine, he is annoying and frustrating and I can do better, even if I will have to wait. But that does not mean I want to see him dead!"

"None of us want to see that happen," Lily assured her. She wondered whether the person deciding Claw's actions and attitudes wanted Root killed. Maybe this was the end goal, softening Claw's terrors and then somehow having Root kill him in a challenge. Maybe _Root_ was the master manipulator-

No, definitely not. She rumbled quietly, laughing at herself, and focused on the problem at paw. "So we do not leave it up to him," she suggested, recalling how she had gotten her own freedom from Claw. "Why not just ask Claw to make challenges not to the death?"

"Would he do that?" Mist asked skeptically.

"I have no clue, but I doubt he would strike at whoever proposed the idea," Lily reasoned. That just was not what the new Claw did. He listened, he never got mad, and he actually made decisions she couldn't find much fault in. She had a much easier time accepting that as reality now that she knew he wasn't the one actually making the choices, though she _still_ had no clue as to how that arrangement worked.

"Well, it is easier than convincing Root to be smart," Mist grumbled. "I am in. I can probably get the others to chime in too."

"I'll go around and get everyone else in on it," Lily agreed. She was wary of trying to get anyone to work directly against Claw, her support on that front was steadily eroding as he turned into a halfway decent alpha, but this was something they would all still agree on.

O-O-O-O-O

"You are all adults!" Claw roared, and the pack roared with him. "I am sure your parents are proud."

Lily sat back on her hind paws and tail, ready to call out-

"Now this is usually where I would ask whether anyone is challenging," Claw continued. "I have something else to say, but first, did anyone intend to?"

"I do not, alpha," Cedar said firmly, looking over at Liona.

"Me neither," Ash agreed.

"I was going to," Root announced. "But what else do you have to say?"

"That I feel it is no longer necessary to kill challengers," Claw said casually. "Fights will be to submission, and the loser will not be alpha. Death seems excessive."

Lily was floored, not because Claw was being kind, that was par for the course by now, but because he just _happened_ to decide and announce it now, with the exact solution she had come up with.

She was not one to believe in coincidence, and the first thing that came to mind was that whoever was behind Claw had caught wind of her idea at some point that very afternoon, and decided to preempt her.

"Sure, but I still challenge," Root said eagerly. "All the more so, now that I can do so with no regrets."

"I am not going to let you win," Claw warned him. "But if you must, so be it." He leaped off the plateau, and Root followed.

"It is official, Claw has been killed and replaced with a lookalike," Crystal joked giddily. "Talk about a turnaround!"

"Or someone else is giving him orders," Lily murmured. That seemed far more likely, if only because Claw was definitely still Claw, with all the memories and a lot of the same habits. What lookalike could perfectly slip into his place like this?

"I do not care so long as he remains injured and keeps making things better," Crystal said firmly. "I feel like finding out what is really going on will make it stop happening and bring the old Claw back."

"Agree to disagree," Lily murmured. She didn't feel that way at all, and knew that sort of thinking to be a fallacy. So long as Crystal acted the same after she knew the truth, nothing would change that she did not intend to change. Seeing a good thing wouldn't make it disappear.

Though it _was_ possible that Crystal meant she wanted to take the good outer layer as it was, and not investigate the means by which it was achieved, in case what she found disillusioned her. She might dread finding something just as awful behind this good turn of fortune.

 _That_ , Lily understood, though it wasn't enough to stop her.

The fight took a long time, much longer than before, but eventually a cry went up from those closest to the fighting cave, and _both_ combatants walked back to the plateau, something that had never happened before.

Claw was unmarred, not injured or even marked in any way. Root, on the other paw…

Crystal whined in sympathy as Root limped his way to the foot of the plateau, and stopped there. He moved stiffly, and though they couldn't see it, Lily suspected he was bruised all over. A thin rivulet of blood streamed down his side.

All in all, Lily _would_ be sympathetic if the alternative hadn't been death. As it was, she pitied Root's crestfallen, quietly terrified expression more than his injuries. He had to be having trouble dealing with the massively one-sided beating he had just received, and what it meant. If Claw did all of that without a scratch, he could have killed just as easily.

"I won," Claw said loudly. "Root lost. There will be no more challenges from him. Is everyone okay with this new way of doing things, or should we go back-"

The crowd around Lily burst out into various forms of support for Root, roaring or trying to speak over the noise depending on the person. Lily added her voice to the mix. She supported this change. It had been her idea, after all.

O-O-O-O-O

"I have to say," Whirl purred to Lily, "I like this."

Lily nodded politely, and continued to watch the scene playing out in front of them. By this point, she was numb to Claw's change in personality, and she wasn't surprised to hear others were happy with it.

"So what would you do?" Claw prompted, looking over at Root.

Root, standing at the edge of the plateau, squinted at the two males who had come to seek arbitration. "Get more details? Ask their mates about it?"

"Exactly," Claw praised, leaping off the plateau. "And we are going now, because…"

"Because we want to ask their mates before they have a chance to tell them what the lie is, if there is a lie," Root followed up. "It will make the truth easier to find."

Lily noticed that one male nodded, and the other scowled nervously. She could already predict which one had counted on getting his mate alone before she was questioned.

"The other Dams are all so jealous," Whirl continued. "They whine about not knowing that Claw was going to make challenging safe, and then complain that he only noticed Root." She hummed smugly.

"I don't think Cedar or Ash would have challenged even if they knew it would just get them a beating," Lily said, watching Root, Claw, and the two other males depart. From what she had seen, Cedar was far too hopelessly in love with Liona to _want_ any distractions, even that of being groomed to lead by the alpha, and if anything, Danda wouldn't have wanted Ash in any position of power. He wasn't the brightest light wing in the pack, not by a long shot.

"No, but look at what they missed out on," Whirl said proudly. "Root still lives, the alpha likes him, and he still comes home every night to his parents. It is the dream for any Dam."

Lily remained silent, though she would disagree with that. The first two, certainly, but Root not having a mate and still living with his parents was not something most would prefer. It was just Whirl's clingy nature that made her consider such a thing a benefit.

"As the alpha's favorite, surely he will soon find a mate," Lily offered, testing the waters on that one. _She_ had no interest, but there would be other females, and Root was the only unmated male in the valley.

"They will all just want his favor," Whirl scoffed. "Maybe in a few season-cycles, once he is well established."

"Sure," Lily conceded. She heard that for what it really was, Whirl holding on to her son for an indefinite amount of time, but it wasn't up to her to break that attachment into something more normal. If Claw wanted Root to be a good second in command, or heir, or whatever he was working toward, he would have to address Whirl sooner rather than later.

Far more important was Claw taking Root along on his alpha duties, but she couldn't see a problem with that, as of now. Root had strong morals and a stubbornness to rival both Mist, herself, and his Dam at times, and Claw was being a _good_ influence, as far as she could tell. If it moved Root into a place of power, all the better.

Lily thought she saw the endgame of whoever was behind Claw. The first step was to break away from his most vile habits, then to slowly correct all of the most toxic customs around him. This next step looked to be placing strong-willed, upstanding dragons directly under him.

The step after that could be Claw just continuing as he was, or stepping down, or even going crazy and needing to be put down, but in any case the mystery dragon in charge was removing his power and putting it with others, starting with Root. She supported that.

She would support it _more_ if she was one of those receiving responsibility and power, but Claw avoided her at every turn, and they had not spoken once since her outburst at him. If it weren't for her consistent spying, she would never see him except from afar.

O-O-O-O-O

The cold season had come, and Lily was having a hard time adjusting to being back where she had been last season-cycle. Thankfully, she was not the only one.

"I wish we could be outside," Crystal groaned, looking around the side-chamber. It was not the same one they had shared with Honey, it was larger and housed several families, but that wasn't quite enough to remove the stifling feeling.

"I got used to my rock," Lily agreed. Shine, as Crystal had named her daughter, whined as if in agreement. She let her head drop and covered Shine's back with warm scales.

"And the personal space, and the wind," Crystal groaned, patting Burble's back as he slumbered, sprawled out next to her. "I got used to being upwind of my hatchlings."

"Yeah," Lily said. "Want me to bring back the fish, or do you want a break?" Crystal's parents would be back soon, but it was easier to fall back into the pattern of helping Crystal as if there was nobody else to do it. She was happy to have something to fill the cold, bleak days with in the upcoming season.

"Yes, please, you go," Crystal said. "I will just stay here and prepare for an entire cold season of confinement. I wish we lived in warmer places, like Storm was talking about."

Lily rumbled in agreement and left. Storm was surprisingly easy to forget about, spending a _lot_ of her time outside the valley, but her stories of other places had caught on like a wildfire with the rest of the pack.

Those stories interested Lily, but only mildly. It didn't help that Storm so often left out the things she would have wanted to hear, focusing on the narrow selection of things she had done and seen, not everything she had traveled through.

Lily passed through the main chamber, stopping briefly to take in the mayhem. She could see many familiar faces, all doing their own thing.

Pearl was an easy one to spot, right by Storm and the exit. She had voluntarily taken a place that most shied away from, the coldest spot in the cave, citing the need to not feel trapped.

Root and Claw were another obvious duo, on the far side of the cavern. Claw was laying back, letting Root settle disputes and lending his authority, but not his opinion. There were plenty of them, and from what Lily could see, Root was far more confident now. He had been practicing with Claw.

Mist was nearby, watching with a level stare. As far as Lily knew, she had taken it upon herself to ensure Claw didn't sneakily corrupt Root. There was nothing between her and Root, but she had decided to do it anyway.

Lily felt an urge, the urge to go over and spy on Claw, even though he wasn't doing anything. She could maybe discern a little more of his controller's agenda if she heard what he was allowing and what he challenged…

But, thinking about it, she felt no particular need to do that. Crystal was waiting, and so far the mysterious element behind all of this had done nothing but good for the pack and her personally.

She was beginning to feel the same urge that Crystal had expressed, the urge to sit back, stop prying, and let it all play out. Everything was going well, why should she bother herself with learning the details? If it all started going bad again, she would intervene, but her effort wasn't needed right now.

Lily turned away from that scene, headed outside, and began the chilly flight out to the ocean. They would all be stuck in the caves for the time being anyway; she could afford to relax on her observation. It hadn't gotten her anywhere so far.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was alone in the burial grounds, near where they had left Granite, but not too near. She had no desire to turn a corner and find his sad, lonely remains in the freezing wind, cold shadows, and drifts of snow.

She shivered, sad, half-formed thoughts drifting across her mind, and hunched low, feeling miserable, though she was out in the cold of her own accord. A need to be alone had driven her outside, and a desire to mourn had pulled her here once she was out. The weather was conducive to darker, sadder thoughts, regret and old pain. They were in the depths of the cold season now, and inactivity drove contemplation.

If only all of this had happened a season-cycle sooner. She did not resent Root's good fortune, but she would prefer it to be Granite who was spared, Granite who was taken under Claw's wing and groomed to lead. He could have done it, the only real difference between the two was a season-cycle and Claw's differing personality.

She would have settled for Granite just being alive today. Life was slowly getting better, and she could not help but think it could just as easily get worse again, but Granite was quietly optimistic.

Lily looked to the sky, absently watching the clouds-

Just in time to see a light wing gliding down across her field of view, oblivious to her. It was Claw, dropping to land nearby.

Lily froze, but the moment she actually thought about his presence, she flamed herself and drove away the cold for the time being. Her camouflage would not last long in this weather, but she could not possibly resist spying on Claw. He had not come out to a clandestine meeting in the burial grounds since his 'injury' and the start of his change.

She snuck through the rocks, still feeling miserable in the back of her mind, and soon poked her camouflaged head out to see Claw in a narrow corridor.

Pearl was at the other end.

"I thought you did not want to see me," Claw said quietly. Lily had to strain to hear him over the wind whistling through the rocks.

"I didn't, I don't," Pearl replied unsteadily, looking down at the ground. "It is hard enough to remember Claw as a monster. Harder still to see him acting kind, like someone I might actually…"

"Yes, I know," Claw said kindly. He turned around, putting his tail to her. "Does this help?"

Pearl barked out a sad laugh. "Kind of," she admitted. "I will just have to bear it. How much longer?"

"Root shows promise, I am sure he can do well once he has his paws under him," Claw rumbled. "It's easy to work with him."

Lily held in a growl of surprise. The accent, once again present without sufficient explanation, this time in Claw.

"Yes, but how long for that?" Pearl persisted. "It's hard, seeing them all fawning over you, and even harder listening to the ones who still hate in private. I agree with both for very different reasons."

"Soon," Claw promised. "Very soon. I find myself working with him most days already, since it is easier than deflecting attention and questions about my injury."

"Did you _really_ hurt yourself there?" Pearl asked, a hint of curiosity showing through her lingering distress.

"I won't show you, but yes, definitely," Claw growled ruefully. "That was the first thing I did, and I wish I could forget it. You have no idea how disconcerting it is to find a sharp rock and-"

"No details!" Pearl barked, looking queasy. "Is it permanent?"

"Probably. Not that it matters."

"Good. I do not like hearing how some of them talk about you, or thinking that they might catch your eye anew and test your recovery."

"If anything," Claw rumbled, still with his back to her, "seeing them just makes me want you all the more. You actually know me for me."

"And the memories have nothing to do with it?" Pearl asked worriedly.

"I try to avoid you because I am intentionally avoiding any memory that leads to you," Claw said cryptically. "That has not been sullied. But some of the memories I _did_ look athave hurt me in a different way entirely."

"Not in an… attraction… way?" Pearl said slowly.

"No, not that, they are just memories, not feelings, and I could not disagree with them more," Claw growled. "But I _do_ feel horrible for those in them. Lily especially, I cannot help but want to comfort her. He harmed her worst of all, his oldest daughter, the only one he ever even noticed, but for all the wrong reasons."

Lily scowled in disgust, hearing Claw speak of her, but by now she was beginning to understand that the one speaking _wasn't_ Claw, hadn't always looked like him or thought like him. There was something going on here, something both Pearl and Claw already knew about and thus were not explaining, much to her frustration.

"She is a daughter, and you want to treat her like one," Pearl murmured.

"Yes," Claw confirmed, "but unlike all the others, I cannot even begin to mend the bonds that were so thoroughly perverted and defiled, and I do not _want_ to. Not as him. That sort of thing is not forgivable, and it should not happen. She deserves to hate him without remorse or second thoughts, but she also deserves to have a Sire to look up to, and she cannot have both, not even with my power in play."

"I think I get it," Pearl said. "You cannot be that for her as you are. Maybe afterwards?"

"Maybe, or maybe I cannot fix everything, no matter how hard I try or how badly I want to," Claw sighed. "Soon, I promise. Before the thaw, so that none will try to follow."

"And when you do come back… What then?" Pearl asked.

"Whatever you want to do," Claw said simply. "Don't ask me about my feelings, it is hard to hold off those memories when thinking of you, much less in that way."

"Keep holding them off," Pearl said sharply. "I do not want you to see any of that."

"I am, but you should go," Claw groaned, pawing at his head. "It is not supposed to work like this, it only does not hurt when I am not thinking of you."

Pearl leaped into the air without another word and fled as quickly as she could fly. Claw did not follow, standing still and occasionally shaking his head.

Lily backed away from the sight, her heart heavy and confused. She was closer than ever to understanding it all, and she now knew that the one in charge was Claw, but not. Something or someone that had overtaken him, or stolen him, or become him but not entirely. Someone Pearl cared for.

Lily decided, in that moment as she backed away from the scene, to stop digging entirely. She had enough of an answer to be satisfied. If she kept pushing, she might mess something up, and it sounded like Claw would be gone for good soon. Before the thaw.

And as for the rest of what 'Claw' had said about her… She decided not to think about it. Much like with how 'Claw' could not think of Pearl, she could not think of some other person feeling protective over her, not when the only identity she could assign to that person was 'Claw.'

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was one of the first to arrive when Claw called the entire pack to a meeting out on the plateau in spite of the lingering icy cold. She heavily suspected that she knew what it meant, but she had to see to believe.

Crystal was with her, having left Burble and Shine with a caretaker for the brief time it would take to hear Claw's all-important announcement and hurry back inside. Lily pitied the caretaker, whoever it was, though she heavily suspected that it was Pearl, who would not feel the need to be here.

"What do you suppose it is?" Crystal asked, huddling up alongside her for warmth as they waited. "I bet it has to do with Root. They have been inseparable this last moon-cycle, and he looked nervous yesterday."

"When did you see him yesterday?" Lily asked, intrigued.

"He was with Storm and Mist," Crystal explained. "I think Mist was trying to set him up with Storm, but it was not working because he was so distracted by something else that he would not speak about."

"It might be about Root," Lily allowed. She spoke innocently, as if she didn't know, because as far as _anyone_ would ever know, she was as oblivious as the rest of them. This was one secret she was going to keep entirely to herself for the time being, possibly forever. It helped nobody to know it, and it could disrupt the plans of Pearl and her ally.

"Light wings of this pack!" Claw roared, diving to land on the plateau with an audible impact. Lily would have winced had she even the slightest sympathy for him. Though she _should_ sympathize if this was not really Claw, she couldn't. The dissociation was far too hard to apply to her own emotions, and it was easier to just hate, like he himself had said.

Root flew in to land behind Claw, and Crystal purred smugly.

"I have not always been a good alpha, or a good person," Claw announced. The pack was silent in a way that was only ever achieved when everyone was waiting for a speaker's next words.

"Some of the things I did wrong have been corrected, others prevented from continuing after me," Claw continued. "Never have I asked for forgiveness, and I am not asking now."

Lily nodded, though she heard whispered confusion from those around her. For all they knew, for all she was supposed to know, this was Claw, and what he had done was not forgivable. It _definitely_ wasn't forgivable if some other person had made him change course against his will or replaced him entirely at the height of his depravity, whatever the case was.

"I am, however," Claw continued, "making things right. Now I have come to the end of what I myself can do. As such, I have a few last announcements."

Lily wondered what he was going to do. If he was just going to make Root alpha, he would have done that immediately.

"There will be no more fights for the position of alpha," Claw announced. "The alpha should be of sound mind and strong heart, not strong in muscle and nothing else. Going forward, the next alpha will design a way to have successors, but this one time, I am picking my successor and stepping down."

There was a growing roar, a babble of surprise, but Claw roared loudly and cut it off.

"What I have done is not forgivable, and I will not remain alpha now that I have fixed the little I can," he said firmly, brooking no argument. "I am going into the wilds today, and I am never coming back. My mates, consider yourselves free of any ties to me, and find better partners here or abroad. I would not be able to resume being with you anyway, my injury has proven permanent."

There was a murmur of understanding at that. Lily knew that rumors had been circulating about that, given how long it was taking for him to recover and go back to his old ways.

"My children, many of which are not here or not old enough to understand…" Claw shook his head. "Find better role models. If you turn out like me, I hope your new alpha firmly punishes you. What I did is not okay, it is not forgivable, and it is not acceptable in the slightest. The rest of you…"

He paused, then growled angrily. "Listen to Root, for he will be your alpha, but do not obey unquestioningly. If he does something that _feels_ wrong, do not ignore it. Never ignore the things you think should not happen. That just makes it worse and makes the victims feel alone."

"I am not asking for forgiveness," and here he made eye contact with Lily. She made sure to glare at him. "I do not want it. Goodbye to all of you."

Claw sprang into the air, flapped up to a good height, then dropped and flamed himself. His body shimmered and disappeared from sight, and a cold gust of wind made it hard to look directly into the sky.

A few people, mostly his mates and Diora for some reason, rose into the air to follow him. They didn't get far, given none of them had any idea what direction he had departed in.

Nobody would be able to follow, and nobody would know what became of him. Lily felt a cold satisfaction at that thought. Whatever else happened, she doubted that anyone would ever see Claw again, and given how the one taking his place felt, she held no illusions as to his ultimate fate. Either he was already dead, or would soon he.

"I am cold," Crystal remarked. "Do you think Root will mind if I go back to the cave? Everyone knows Claw taught him, nobody will try and stop him from taking over."

"Nobody else has any support, even if a few people would like to take his place," Lily agreed. Already, there were a few males approaching Root. The first one to bow his head was Ivy, who she only recognized because his mate was still searching frantically for any sign of Claw right above his head.

Root growled, stuck a paw under Ivy's chin, and raised his head. He said something about not demanding submission, just loyalty, and Ivy looked as if he had been clubbed over the head.

"He'll do fine," Lily agreed. "You go." She would stay and watch over this transfer of power, however inevitable it seemed. If needed, she would step in and side with Root. He was a good person, and she would rather get in close with him and correct him directly if he made bad choices in the future. Gone were the days of leading potential insurrections. She knew him, he had a good heart, and that was enough for now.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily filled the rest of her cold-season with spending time with her friends and the new alpha. She easily ingratiated herself with the latter by offering advice on handling some of the more problematic females Claw had left in his wake, those who were all for organizing searches and dragging their missing mate back by force if they found him.

Many light wings were not happy after Claw left; he had, after all, abandoned a large group of apparently loving mates without a single kind word, special goodbye, or offer to take them with him. There were a lot of broken hearts, and thus a lot of whining and spiteful infighting to deal with.

But Lily could already see those injuries healing, and quickly. Some were already approaching the new, unmated alpha, though Root had professed a desire to take no mate for the time being. Diora was one of those, though she still had a mate, and Root had not needed Lily's advice to keep a careful eye on how Silva was treated and plan for a way to remove her from Diora without too much fuss. Claw had warned him of that already, it seemed, something that Lily would not have taken well had she not known the truth.

By the time the weather cleared and the air warmed, the pack was well on its way to being back to normal, for all that everything had changed over the past season-cycle.

Lily claimed her small rock with great pleasure the moment the snow cleared, knowing that one of the many newly unattached females would take it if they had the slightest excuse, but she was beginning to think about Pyre's cave. Maybe she would give up her rock to someone and move there. If it was a choice between having Pyre's cave, or someone else finding and claiming it, she knew what she would choose.

Between that, her friendships with Mist, Crystal, Root, and Pearl, and the little things that governed daily life, Lily found herself busy while the season changed around her. Claw's absence felt like permission to _not_ think about him or the ones behind all of it, so she chose not to think about him at all.

But she had not forgotten what she learned and what she overheard, and she could see Pearl's agitation increasing, slowly but steadily, with every day that passed. Everyone could, it was not a secret that Pearl awaited the arrival of a male interest who she had not heard from in a long while. Indeed, when a blazing orange dark wing appeared over the mountains, and Pearl flew up to meet him with glee, those around Lily nodded happily, glad to see him though they knew little about him.

Lily, on the other paw, didn't know what to think. She just knew that she had to meet him, to see for herself.

Ember was large, scarred, muscular, and surprisingly kind behind his deep voice and imposing presence. He politely bowed to Root, the alpha, immediately upon setting down.

"We have been waiting for you," Root said casually. "Pearl, your friend, has said much about you."

"And Storm was there to correct her with the embarrassing details, I am sure," Ember said with a laugh. "Also, that's wrong. She's not just my friend, she is my mate, if she will have me."

"Took you long enough to say that," Pearl said joyously. "You could have made it official before going off to tie up those loose ends."

"It was not until after I had put those loose ends out of my mind that I was able to know my feelings for you, and know that they were genuine and lasting," Ember said as he nuzzled her. Lily heard the assurance he meant just for Pearl hidden in his words, but everyone else just heard a sappy, romantic declaration of love.

"Well," Root said, obviously uncomfortable following that up, "if you plan to stay, follow pack rules, which your mate can tell you. Welcome."

"Got it," Ember rumbled. "So, Pearl, who are your friends?" He looked around as if he had never seen any of them.

"Crystal," Pearl listed, pointing her tail at each of them in turn. "Root is alpha, you met him, Mist is a new friend, and then there is Lily." She nodded to Lily.

Lily met Ember's gaze, but she noticed a hesitant twitch from one of his front paws, like he wanted to reach out but had stopped himself short.

All doubt fled her mind, even as she purred politely at him and didn't let on that she knew. This was the person responsible for stepping in and _fixing_ all that could be fixed in her life. The one who had confessed to feeling bad for her, to wanting to comfort her but understanding that he couldn't possibly do it in his current form…

She stepped forward, closed the distance between them, and pressed her forehead to his. "I look forward to getting to know you, since you are the mate of my friend," she said warmly. She wanted him to have no illusions about how she saw him; he was loyal to Pearl, loyal enough to hurt himself just to drive other females away, and she wanted to give him a chance to act as he wished he could while masquerading as Claw, not steal him for herself.

She felt she would like to have another male figure to look up to, and the one who tricked an entire pack into believing he was their alpha for moon-cycles on end seemed to be the type she would appreciate advice from.

"Besides," she added, feeling she could afford to be a little more open about what she wanted, "You know about the outside world, and I want to learn as much as I can."

"I do know a lot, at that," Ember rumbled happily, breaking away from her to stand with his tail around Pearl's. "We could talk sometime soon?"

"Definitely." She purred at both him and Pearl, hoping she had assured the both of them that she wasn't aiming for Ember's attention. Others would, he was physically impressive and had a kind personality, but she wanted something else entirely. To get to know the one who had befuddled her and saved her from Claw, both for her sake and for his.

_**Author's Note:** _ **This one was never very likely in canon, it's rife with complications I glossed over and ignored here, some very disturbing if you stop to think about it (such as Ember necessarily having to 'watch' Claw covet and assault his own daughter, and who knows what else, and that whole thing with Pearl, though I hand-waved that weirdness away with a small extrapolation of Ember's ability). But it's still an interesting idea if one assumes that all of those complications are solved behind the scenes. Thus, I decided to do it from a fragmented, time-skipping Lily perspective (because more complications are on her side of things, and I didn't have the insanity necessary to cram the majority of the first book of UotD into this one-shot).**

**I'm not sure how this one-shot feels, tonally. Probably weird, fragmented, and unbelievable. That does at least put readers in the same mindset as the protagonist, always a plus.**

**But hey, it's an interesting idea.**


	7. All That Remains- Divergence (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background:** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **had a pretty big plot twist, and I wrote it knowing I could go either way on said twist. The official story went one way, but I figured I might as well go the other too, here where such things are meant to be. This chapter, if one wants the full experience, replaces chapter 15 of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **, and subsequent chapters of this AU (which will go up after this one, of course) continue onward in that pattern. (Chapter 2 of the AU replaces 16 of the main story, and so on). Nothing past chapter 14 of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **is canon in this AU version of the story, but everything prior to it of course is. (and as always, I do not mean this in the strict 'timeline' sense, I mean it in the 'shown in previous chapters / books' sense.)**

**As for specifics of plot? Read on to find out! I'll basically be continuing the story and taking it to a conclusion, though I don't plan to quite match the canon story for length. There are reasons this was not the path I took in canon, and those reasons include there just not being as much to cover this way around. Having said that, this won't be short, a full 10 chapters in length. I'll be posting every Wednesday (because, as almost always, I wrote this whole thing already) until it's done.**

**Also, yes, the first part of this chapter is near-verbatim from chapter 19 of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **. That's because I want to continue onward as seamlessly as possible from the original story. Those of you with good memories or the inclination to cross-check the original passage to this might be able to predict a few things for this chapter and the next few solely from what is different with the mostly-copied sections.**

* * *

Pearl waved a wooden object, wondering as she did what it was used for. It was an odd bent shape, flat surfaces at opposition to each other. She really didn't know. The ship she had been held captive on hadn't had any where she was kept, and that was the sum total of her knowledge.

A pair of glowing orange eyes neared the window. Pearl set the chair down, trying not to make any noise. She was invisible, but not in any way silenced by her own abilities. The silence she had perfected was one of care and practice.

Ember and Storm latched onto the window and climbed in, one after the other.

Ember noticed the unconscious soldier. "Good work. Did he make any noise?" He did not even bother looking for Pearl, knowing that the blur in the air that was only barely noticeable was the best he could see of her.

"No." She was proud of that, at least a little. She had managed to silence it without killing it.

"We might need to leave this way," Ember said carefully. "He should be gotten rid of."

"You mean killed?" Pearl didn't particularly care, but it didn't feel like something good people did.

"I don't want to," Ember muttered. "He deserves it, for what he is, what he chooses to be, but he is not attacking, unable to defend himself..."

Pearl didn't like the conflict she heard in Ember's voice. "I've got it." She grabbed the man and pulled him towards the window, preparing to drop him out. Safely out of the way and...

She only took note of the looks of complete shock on the others' faces as she was dangling the unconscious soldier out the window.

"Wha'?" Its smelly clothing was making it hard to talk. She was taking great care not to accidentally taste it as she held it with her mouth.

"No-scaled-not-prey do not fly, and do not take falls well," Storm remarked dryly. "Though that is a good way to get rid of the body, I suppose."

Pearl hastily pulled the body back in. "Oh, right. I forgot." They were not _that_ high above the dark beach. A dragon would have been bruised but fine.

"I've got it," Ember announced, shifting into his scrawny human form. He pulled the unconscious hunter to the far end of the room and awkwardly tied him up, using some nearby cloths as makeshift ropes. "Really, we can leave from any window, but better safe than sorry." He tightened the knots. "The longer this guy takes to sound the alarm, the better."

With that handled, Pearl began phase two of their plan. She very carefully nudged the wooden bit of the otherwise stone wall, sighing as it gave easily, opening into a corridor. There was no one around, the flickering flames of torches in iron settings the only movement.

In the strategy they had predetermined, Pearl led the way, her invisible body followed by Ember in human form, and finally Storm. From behind, Storm would look very much like Second, who presumably walked these stone passages as freely as he did Drago's ship, and from the front Ember was visible, a human who was not so very out of place, at least not as out of place as Pearl would be. A faint shimmer and warping in the air was all Pearl would appear to be in the shifting shadows cast by the fitful torches. Ember laid a No-scaled-not-prey paw on Pearl's back, letting touch guide him.

Pearl was technically leading them, but as she didn't know where Drago would be any better than Ember or Storm, she was no better than either of them at picking a good path. They were all equally clueless.

For the moment, Pearl worked her way into the heart of the mountain, assuming the more important things would be central.

They came across no hunters, no enemies, in the first few minutes. The world consisted of their own footsteps, the crackling of fire in the torches, and breathing. Silence ruled as Pearl worked her way further into the mountain, but eventually her progress was stymied by a strange little slanted path.

Ember growled, an odd sound in his human form. "The stairs are small. We can't change floors with these. Only I stand any chance of fitting."

"So, unless Drago happens to be on this floor," Pearl began with a sinking feeling, "we can't get to him?" So much for them going with Ember.

"Well, Ember isn't going alone," Storm huffed. "At least let us be sure Drago is not on this level first."

That seemed like a sensible idea. Pearl backtracked, finding the last intersection she had encountered, and turning the corner to go a different way.

A hunter bumped into her, falling back as he did. "What the-"

Ember leaped past Pearl even as the hunter drew his crossbow, slashing at the bulkier man's arms. Blood splattered to the stone below, and Ember stabbed brutally, silencing the hunter before he could scream. Sound might be deadly, if there were others who could hear nearby.

The hunter collapsed into a pile of black ash, and Ember grimaced. "Now I've got a better form for this, at least," he muttered, "no matter how distasteful that always is."

Pearl stared in muted shock at the ash. She had been told he could do it, but seeing it was another thing, as was seeing Ember shift into the form of the No-scaled-not-prey he had just killed. It was wrong, twisted, but necessary here.

She would be happy to see Ember-the-dragon again, that was for sure. This was unnerving, looking at one who seemed in every aspect a hunter and knowing this one, unremarkable among the masses of them that Drago might command, concealed the mind she... loved? Yes, loved. A strange situation.

"Now I should lead," Ember said gruffly. "They won't suspect me until they get a good look at Storm, and I'll be ready if they do." He took the group down an as of then unexplored passage.

They traveled in silence for a few minutes, turning every once in a while. Pearl was unsure what the point of this particular section of the mountain was. It seemed to consist of grid-like corridors and empty rooms at regular intervals.

"Storage," Ember quickly explained when she asked. "Unused, which might be why no one is around. We'll have to go back to the windows and enter another, on a different floor."

"Ember, if what you told us of your abilities is correct, you have its memories," Storm replied urgently. "Just use those and tell us where our target is."

"Not sure why I didn't think of that to start with," Ember admitted. "Guard me. There's a lot to sort through, and I'm not exactly going to be able to watch the corridor while I think."

"I've got the left," Pearl volunteered.

"No, you just stand in the corridor and look both ways. They won't see you, remember?" Storm corrected irritably, backing into the nearest empty room. Ember followed her in.

"Right, right," Pearl agreed, turning in a tight circle in the stone corridor. She felt decidedly uneasy in the heart of the mountain, surrounded on all sides by unyielding stone. It would be so easy for it all to just crumble inward and entomb the three of them. Hopefully No-scaled-not-prey couldn't just make that happen. They had cut out these passages; it seemed likely to her that they could do other things to natural stone.

But she was just worrying about nothing. Aside from that one useful No-scaled-not-prey, they seemed to be alone on this floor of the mountain. The occasionally flickering flame was the only source of movement to be seen.

"I've gotten all I can get out of this guy," Ember announced a short while later, poking his head out into the corridor. "And it's not much. This guard wasn't anyone important, and apparently Drago keeps everyone on a need-to-know basis. But I've got an idea where to go next."

"Do you know if there were other guards around here?" Pearl asked worriedly. She would prefer to know whether someone might turn the corner first.

"Yes, but I think they're not going to come anywhere near here for a little while longer…"

"And?" She didn't like that ominous pause.

"And they'll figure out that this guard has gone missing soon," Ember concluded in the No-scaled-not-prey's deep voice. "We can use that to our advantage as long as we're not up here once they notice. He saw his fellow guards recently, so they'll know he disappeared up here. Searches might clear the rest of the mountain for us, and Drago won't bother getting involved personally."

"So, we get off of this level, sneak toward wherever the bad alpha should be, and use this No-scaled-not-prey's disappearance as a distraction," Pearl repeated, summarizing for Storm's benefit.

"The only problem," Ember replied, walking out of the storage chamber in the stolen form, "is that if I'm seen like this, everyone will notice. This guard isn't going to be able to walk by without being stopped, now." That explanation was followed by the blue flames that always accompanied a transition in form, and a heartbeat later Ember, the real Ember, was standing before her.

Pearl caught herself just before she lunged forward and embraced him, glad her lack of visibility was covering her indecision. For a brief moment, she had been nothing but relieved by seeing Ember back in his rightful form. Logically, it was stupid to be relieved; she knew that he was in complete control and apparently in absolutely no danger of being affected by taking a new form, or trapped in a form, or anything like that.

Emotionally, she considered the dark wing form, and to a lesser extent the scrawny No-scaled-not-prey form, _him_ , and anything else… Other. Not him, not even if it acted like him.

"I do not know how you can stand that," Storm muttered, following Ember out into the corridor. "Do you feel dirty after being in one of their bodies? I think I would."

"Yes, but I can't be rid of it until all of this is over, because that would be stupid and short-sighted," Ember sighed. "Pearl, lead the way. We need to get back to where we started, because that direction is where this guard was patrolling. As far as I can tell, Drago almost never leaves the sea-level passageways, so we know where to go next."

"Okay, but you're not going to go back to the No-scaled-not-prey's form for this?" Pearl began to lope down the passage even as she asked; it was clear Ember wasn't planning on doing so, she was just curious as to why.

"He just said he was not," Storm grumbled irritably as they ran.

"Storm," Ember snarled dangerously. "It is a valid question."

"We are in enemy territory. Now is not the time for unimportant questions!"

"You can tell me later," Pearl agreed, panting as her chest began to burn with continued exertion. She wasn't used to exercise of any sort, thanks to three moon-cycles trapped almost entirely without being able to move, not to mention a lack of serious exercise before that.

Pearl skidded past a corner, confident in her direction; they had taken a mostly straight path inward, so backtracking was as simple as turning around and moving forward. The only reason she could not see the wooden passageway that blocked the initial chamber with the window was that the corridors were not entirely straight. They curved and bent minutely to follow the seams of the stone, which were visible in the walls around them if one had time to stop and examine them.

Then the doorway appeared around a shallow bend, and Pearl exhaled in relief. She had half expected to be spotted by some No-scaled-not-prey not where they should be, so actually making it to the exit without incident was a relief even if it shouldn't be.

Even if they were not leaving for good, just going to a different part of the mountain. She tried not to dwell on that as she skidded to a stop in front of the wooden blockade, shoved it open, and checked to be sure the No-scaled-not-prey was still where they had left it.

"We're clear," she said happily, jumping out the open hole in the wall and snapping her wings open, diving shallowly to fight the dangerous flow of wind directly toward the mountainside. Ember and Storm were right behind her.

"I feel like we accomplished something just by making it out of there," Storm admitted, her tone lacking most of its usual confidence.

"This place is foreboding," Ember agreed darkly, powering forward to take the lead. "Like something dangerous sleeps, waiting. But it's just a feeling. Drago can and will die tonight."

"And we will be right there with you when it happens," Storm snarled. "Do not even try to tell us we should go wait somewhere safe now that we have participated a little. We are with you all the way."

Pearl growled wordlessly in agreement, though she didn't think that was where Ember had intended to go, anyway. He seemed to have accepted their participation.

"Do either of you see openings just a little above the water?" Ember asked, changing the subject. "I cannot be sure if there are any, but the only other way in is risky, to say the least."

Pearl squinted, trying to spot a dark opening in the stone near the water. She could see in the dark just like the more aptly-named dark wings, but that wasn't helping her see something that didn't seem to exist. They circled around the entire mountain once, to no avail.

"Sounds like we are going in the risky way," Storm announced briskly. "Which I assume is the huge, gaping opening with all of the wood jamming it up."

"The docks, yes," Ember confirmed. "Ships are there. Not as many as there could be, but quite a few. Including the one you were held captive on."

"I see it," Pearl agreed, feeling queasy. That particular angular arrangement of wood and shiny stone held many memories given the comparatively brief time she had spent there, and most of them were terrible. Gold being slaughtered, Gold being skinned, the absolute hopelessness Ember had lifted from her by promising to get her out, Second talking about eating Gold-

"Wait, does that mean Second will be here?" she blurted out worriedly.

"You should have already known that, because we are here hunting his twisted human alpha, and they were travelling together," Storm growled. "Yes. I claim the right of killing him if we get a chance."

"We are going to get in, kill Drago, and escape," Ember corrected firmly, swooping down to fly low over Storm, staring down at her. "I grounded Second, so he will not be able to follow. Run unless fighting is unavoidable. We're not here for him."

"I will kill him if I can, but only if it is the smart choice," Storm compromised. "Is that acceptable to you?"

"Barely. Pearl, don't let her run off on her own to go make sure killing him is the only option."

"Got it," Pearl agreed, easily ignoring Storm's glare. The female dark wing might have warmed up to her a little, but that just made her less likely to want to let Storm put herself in stupidly unnecessary danger. "But what's the plan we _should_ be following?"

"We'll fly in as low as we can, slaloming between the anchored ships," Ember explained. They were gliding in low circles at a distance from the mountain and its large opening, so Pearl had a good view of the start of their infiltration, if nothing else. "From what I know now, there will be guards, but they won't be ready for us. From there, we'll head inward. Drago's quarters are in the center of the mountain, behind a fully metal door that could withstand everything we could throw at it."

"So how do we get by?" Pearl asked.

"Everything _we_ could throw at it," Ember repeated with a low rumble. "He has personal guards on duty around the door at all times, and they know how to get in. Either one of them will have a key, or he'll know where some secret lever is."

"And Second?" Storm inquired eagerly.

"He sleeps in a cell halfway across the mountain, I think. Except for when he doesn't. I don't know where he'll be, but chances are he won't be around."

O-O-O-O-O

Storm growled quietly to herself as they flew around one more time and lined themselves up. She didn't care about the danger but being denied a chance at Second was frustrating.

Or was it relieving? She didn't really know how she felt about it, and confusion made her angry. It _should_ be irritating, but she also felt relief for no discernable reason.

She focused on the anger, knowing it to be the far more appropriate emotion. They were going into battle; this was still intended to be a stealth attack, but that meant killing anyone who might get away to spread the word this time around. Ember hadn't said so, but it was obvious.

To her, anyway. She wasn't sure Pearl understood. The light wing had shown plenty of unusual ignorance thanks to her upbringing-

And there was another good way to be angry. She focused on that. Anger was the only appropriate emotion right now, the only _useful_ emotion.

First, they flew over the still No-scale-not-prey vessels, what Ember called ships in passing, the one Storm herself had been imprisoned on chief among them. They were flying too fast for her to do more than notice that, though she would happily have taken a chance on defiling it in some way if she was alone.

But if nothing else, she could not slow down enough to even contemplate that; they were not gliding, they were throwing themselves forward, diving at a shallow angle simply to gain speed, bending their course only slightly to avoid the dead trees sticking up from the vessels.

Then the stone passed over their heads, and the interior of the strange No-scale-not-prey-made mountain came into view, a stone bowl somewhat like the inside of that strange ice nest in shape, half of a dome similar to that one.

She saw movement, and she fired, killing one of the half-dozen or so No-scale-not-prey standing around. Ember and even Pearl did the same, so clearly Pearl got the seriousness of the situation, and then they were splitting up, Ember going for a group of three while she and Pearl banked in the air, throwing away all of the speed they had built up, and dropped right on top of the other three.

Storm promptly ripped off whatever extremity she had landed on by contracting her claws and yanking to the side, and then blasted whatever was left beneath her. She had been given plenty of time to plan how she would fight No-scale-not-prey since her first encounter with them, and this was the first time she had ever been able to use that angry planning. It was immensely satisfying.

Then she whirled around to check on Pearl, only to see the light wing reluctantly smashing the heads of two No-scale-not-prey together, dropping them both.

"Good," Storm praised, and stepped over to finish them. "Go help Ember."

"He doesn't need help," Pearl objected, looking over at the dark wing in question. "He's done." She sounded faintly unsettled, but only faintly, which was a surprise to Storm. Maybe Pearl had some built-up hatred of these No-scale-not-prey too.

"Follow me," Ember called out, running by them. "According to one of these guards, their replacements aren't due for a while yet, so on the one paw we'll have an easy way out, and on the other there are some extra No-scale-not-prey somewhere around here, and I don't know where. Stay sharp!"

Storm found she had no problems following that order; she didn't like taking orders as a general rule, but this was a fight, and Ember knew vastly more about combat than she did, though she would never praise him as such if anyone asked. If anyone could get her to the ones she wanted dead, it would be him, and she would be a fool not to follow him now.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl couldn't help but notice that Ember was more _alive_ right now than he had been in planning this, or in talking about it, or even just in the small moments prior to all of those things. This might not be helping him in the long run, but she could not argue how effectively it was giving him a reason to keep going, short-term. The pain and darkness seemed restrained in him at the moment, held back simply because they could not be allowed to hinder him.

She still did not think she could see the real him, how he was when he was not desperately sad and wanting to die, but this had to at least be closer, because one of those two things did not plague him at the moment. He did not want to die now.

If only he could have that without putting himself in mortal danger. And them, but she and Storm had argued their way into this, so she could not exactly regret it now. At least she had made the choice for herself.

She, Storm and Ember ran down a narrow passage, Ember leading the way with his sharp claws and sharper reflexes, leaping across every intersection and stopping at the other side, letting them surge forward and spin to either side just to be sure there was nobody there. They were moving at such speed that even if the entire mountain had known about the death of the guards by the strange bay, none would have had time to reach them yet, and nobody knew.

So, they raced deeper and deeper into the mountain, the only opposition coming from guards patrolling as normal, only to be swiftly cut down by tooth or claw or fire, as appropriate.

Pearl began to run out of breath, but she kept going anyway, ignoring the burning in her lungs and aching in her legs. She had volunteered for this, and if she slowed them down it would be her fault. Speed was important; they could fail if they had to slow for her.

She could be recaptured, slain, butchered, fed to Second. That fear lent her speed even as she tired, allowing her to keep up; she had never been in such immense danger before, never with the stakes quite so high, the enemy everywhere and powerful.

The thought occurred to her that her Dam would never approve, and she would have laughed were she able to.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember raced forward, seeing in his mind a fragmented, incomplete map of the mountain. Of course, he was not _actually_ seeing it, but the human side of him had always been good at imagining and holding things in his mind. It was an asset when inventing on the sly. Gobber couldn't reluctantly destroy plans if the plans were held only in his mind until the last moment.

Now, that particular way of thinking was coming in handy. From what he had seen of the memories of both guards, he knew a lot about certain floors of the mountain, and even more about what each floor was supposed to encompass.

The ground level, the one they were on, was a place of preparation and coordination. Drago's quarters were on this level, as well as some of the more important prisoner holding cells, the ones meant for short-term prisoners or overflow. There were more holding cells, many more, down below, but neither guard could remember any prisoners being brought in to any of those for months. Drago did not often take live prisoners.

Aside from Drago's quarters, the ground floor mostly served as a thoroughfare between the docks, lower levels, and upper levels. The upper levels housed soldier quarters, supplies, and other things, but that was irrelevant.

The only things that mattered were the layout of the ground floor, the location of Drago's quarters, the number and location of all soldiers on the ground floor, where stairs to other floors let out on the ground floor, and how many men would be on call at the other ends of those stairwells.

He knew enough of that to know they didn't have as much time as the current lack of resistance implied. Drago's men were not exceedingly well-trained, but they knew the procedures for an unanticipated hostile invasion. Even now, if a single man noticed them and survived doing so, the exits would all soon be blocked, and they would be trapped.

Not entirely trapped; no fortress manned by living, thinking people could withstand him if he went all-out. He would get out easily enough no matter how Drago's men tried to stop him, because they would never find him. But he had two far more vulnerable people with him, and he couldn't do that.

So, he ran as fast as the other two could match, and made a beeline right for where Drago had been seen not half an hour ago by the second guard whose memories he had taken a moment to sift through. Drago had come out to his ship, retrieved a large stack of parchments, and headed back for his quarters. The same quarters the guard in question knew were off-limits whenever Drago had parchment to deal with. Even knocking on the door could be punishable by death.

In this case, Ember didn't plan to knock, but he did plan for there to be death. One of the three murderers of his family would die tonight.

One of the four. But he couldn't let himself fall into that again, not just yet, and he held the darkness at bay with anger and purpose. There but not consuming him, just enough to harden him to what had to be done.

Ember noticed a glint of moving metal in the distance and fired forward, all too aware that he couldn't duck without exposing one of the dragons behind him to whatever had been fired their direction, and then fired again as soon as he could manage. The first shot exploded when it hit the projectile, and the second continued onward, blasting its origin with explosive blue fire.

In the back of his mind, he was keeping track of his shots. Those made four of the eight he had begun this second incursion with, and this was going to go so quickly that there was no point in factoring in any of those shots returning to be used later. If they were still in the mountain by then, he would have problems too large to solve with a single bolt of fire.

"How much further?" Pearl called out breathlessly.

"We're almost there," Ember barked back, recalling his mental map of the place. There would soon be a dark stone archway, brick set in relief instead of just natural stone, and that marked the part of the mountain nobody dared tread save for Drago, occasionally Second, and in the past, Krogan, who for obvious reasons would not be there now. Past that arch, he knew only that there was a solid door, the one for which knocking carried a penalty of death. Neither guard had ever been past the arch in all the time they had served Drago.

They might encounter Second there; Ember knew how to handle that. Storm would jump at the chance, and Pearl might help. Two on one, with at least one combatant moderately skilled, should be enough to stall Second, assuming he held back from killing. Given who Storm was, Ember considered that likely.

He would go for Drago; that was all they needed to leave this place. Drago's death, however it could be managed.

The bricks of the arch came into view around a winding corner; at least a dozen men also came into view, armed with spears and marching their direction.

Ember bit back a Viking curse in favor of expending a few shots to throw their front line into disarray, leaping forward and closing the distance before they could recover. He knew very well what men marching this way meant. The alarm had already been sounded, and the exits were soon going to be impassible.

That was for later. Now, he tore through their front line, snapped a spear haft in his teeth, and eviscerated the man holding what remained, bulling through the dark dust that resulted. He would not hold back; this was a fight for revenge and for the lives of his half-sister and whatever Pearl was to him. Every man downed was another form to throw at Drago, another form to spend getting them out, another chance to not fail. He did not fight to take forms, but he would use them when he had them.

Such as now, shifting to the body of one of the guards only a heartbeat before an unavoidable spear would have gone right through his side, instead suffering a nasty gash on a body that did not matter.

He could hear cries of confusion and fear as he struck, pulling the spear away from its wielder and turning it on another. That was good; the more he unnerved them, the faster he could end this and continue on. Pearl and Storm were attacking the scattered formation now, easily ripping through what remained because all eyes were on him, all weapons turned against the one that did not belong.

It was over in seconds; he took a short sword to the gut just as the last man fell, Storm biting into the man and slamming him against the wall, and then-

Then, Storm lurched forward and grabbed _him_ , doing exactly the same. He experienced the unnerving sensation of being cast out of his own body and almost immediately solidified in the corridor a few steps back, in his usual No-scaled-not-prey form, though he changed back to the Night Fury body he tended to prefer as quickly as he could.

"Storm!" Pearl screeched from nearby. "That was Ember!" She sounded horrified by that fact.

"It was, yes," Ember grumbled, shaking his head and picking his way past the shattered and blood-stained remains they had made of the formation. "Just try not to kill me by accident any more than is inevitable."

"Well, if you use their forms, do not expect me to know the difference," Storm grumbled, falling in behind him.

"We both _saw_ him change to fight them," Pearl interjected accusingly. "He had a big, bloody wound on his side and was stabbing one in the back. How did you make that mistake? I knew it was him."

"Heat of battle," Storm shot back. "And I was not watching him the whole time, unlike you."

"I just wanted to be sure he was okay," Pearl muttered, her voice low and embarrassed.

Ember ignored the byplay, caught up in leading the way to the arch.

As they ran, Storm somehow found the breath to keep talking. "At least you do not mind killing them."

"What else can I do?" Pearl asked, panting between words. "They keep trying to stab my eyes out or cut my throat! I'm not enjoying this, but it's life or death!"

"And I am saying that is good," Storm retorted firmly. "But you really need practice. What was that clumsy move with the stick and the helmet I saw you trying? You almost got a false claw down your throat so far it would have come out the other end!"

"Storm!" Pearl squealed.

"Quiet," Ember barked back, slowing down to a slow trot as the telltale red bricks came into view. "We go in silently, we kill on sight, and we get out the moment Drago is dead. I don't know what's past here, but let _me_ take the door down."

"Sure. Will you need our fire, or do we get to burn everything in sight?" Storm asked seriously.

"Save your flames if you can." He didn't know how reinforced the door would actually be; Drago struck him as paranoid, so it might be proof against something like Second going rogue, but at the same time that would be a sign of weakness, so maybe not. "If Second is in there-"

"I will kill him and Pearl will help, now can we go before some other No-scaled-not-prey show up?" Storm hissed, prodding at his tail impatiently.

"Please don't die," Ember growled, and then they were going. He rounded the corner and passed under the brick arch ready to kill, and didn't let his guard down an inch when it seemed nobody was around. Beyond the arch was a small, circular room with several more arches leading out of it; beyond those arches he could see such mundane things as a pantry, a large chair like his father used to have, and a small desk with an open book on it. One arch contained a dark chamber with bars like a cell, but there was nothing living in there, either.

And on the inside of the largest arch, there was a thick, impenetrable-looking door reinforced with steel.

Pearl and Storm both ran into him as they leaped into the room, clearly expecting much more space and somebody to fight. He staggered and moved forward to let them in.

"Door," Pearl huffed. "That's it, right?"

"Right. Let's all hit it at once." He was thinking that if Drago happened to be standing close to the door, just blasting it open might be enough to kill him.

"On three," Storm snarled, fire building in the back of her throat. "One."

"Two," Pearl called out, also preparing to fire.

Ember crouched, checked his claws and teeth, and readied himself for anything. "Three!"

Three powerful blasts of fire impacted the door at the same time; it didn't explode, which was an impressive thing in and of itself, but it _did_ break free of its frame and slam back into the chamber beyond, hitting the opposite wall with a loud crash.

After the crash had finished echoing through the stark quarters, Pearl shook her head. "Is that it?"

"No." He knew this trick; he might have used it himself if he had ever needed to survive such a situation, but was unaware of what was truly hunting him. Drago, if he was there, would be lurking by the doorway, ready to impale whoever was foolish enough to come through first, and he would be expecting dragons…

"Hide in the side chambers and leap out once he's vulnerable," he instructed. "I'm going to lure him out."

Pearl and Storm nodded and leaped over to opposite sides of the room, crouching behind two of the archways. They would not be visible until too late, from Drago's perspective.

That done, Ember snarled loudly, groaned in apparent annoyance, and walked away, his claws clicking on the stone. Once he was out in the currently empty corridor beyond, he shifted to the bloodied and bleeding form of one of the soldiers he had killed only moments ago, using the spear that came with it as a crutch.

The left leg of this body spasmed every time he put pressure on it; his breathing was labored and something in his chest felt broken. This body would not last long at all; he was pretty sure he was dying.

That made the ruse all the more effective, though, as his injuries had clearly been inflicted by a dragon. "Sir!" he yelled into the archway, digging up memories to be sure he held the façade of the body he was using. "They're heading down, into the lower levels! Are you here?"

"Aye," Drago's gruff, dark voice called out. "They've moved on?"

"Killin' as they go," Ember confirmed. "They run like nothin' else." He could remember, though from a remove, what this guard knew of the defenses, which was more than enough to add an unfakeable level of authenticity to his explanation. "Defenses are musterin', but we only caught wind o' this moments ago. Nobody knows where Second is, and Krogan ain't around to take charge, we need ya out here to rally us!"

"Second will be in his cell on the lowest level," Drago revealed, stepping into view, though not into range of Pearl and Storm. He was still wearing the dark cloak and brandishing the bullhook Ember recalled from his time on his ship. His eyes were still unnaturally piercing.

At the last possible moment, Ember glanced downward, not making eye contact. He knew better than to give Drago a chance to do whatever it was he did; the memories he had just seen provided ample examples of Drago sensing treachery just from looking someone in the eye.

But that was still not a good move; Drago growled suspiciously, sounding very much like a sickly dragon of some sort. "Things are not as they seem," he gritted, leveling his bullhook at Ember. "Look at me."

The game was up, but another game could be played now. Ember allowed the spasming pain this body was wracked with to become visible, letting his stance falter, and began to limp away. "Stay here then," he coughed, trying to sound malicious and managing something close. "Let the mountain fall."

 _That_ got Drago to step forward, out into the middle chamber, just shy of the striking range of the hidden dragons waiting for him. "Fool," he exhaled, "such a fool, you and the one who bought your treachery. I keep secrets from all. No invasion can defeat my new Second."

A new Second? Ember dismissed it; whatever it was, unless it showed up in the next few seconds, it could not stop them. "I doubt it," he laughed, and leveled his spear. "Yer not so intimidatin' now-"

Quick as a snake, utterly belying his massive size, Drago reversed his grip on his bullhook and threw it, and for the second time since the incursion began, Ember lost a form, the spike at the top of the bullhook going right through some part of his head, killing him instantly. He collapsed backward and solidified in Ember's form, which was good because the fight had just begun.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl leaped into the fray the moment she saw the bad alpha's signature false claw go sailing out at Ember, knowing that it was, if not defenseless, then far closer than usual. She didn't really know how to fight, but how to kill was clear enough to anyone who had a healthy sense of self-preservation; she just had to do what she would fear, were she the one being attacked.

Storm leaped too; they converged right in front of Drago and spun, both lunging more or less in unison-

A large, bony fist struck the underside of her chin, and she gurgled in shocked pain as her body continued forward against her will, landing her atop the bad alpha, who had stepped her way to avoid Storm. He shifted, pulled back, and punched her again, right on the nose, and she reared back instinctively.

Storm made her presence known at that exact moment, attacking from behind and forcing the bad alpha to back off, leaving Pearl to fight through a spinning head and a pained throat; she felt terrible and couldn't make herself stand.

Then Ember came roaring in, leaping directly over her sprawled-out body to engage, landing on Storm's back and ripping into the bad alpha's cloaked arm there, providing her twice the amount of flashing claws and biting teeth as she bore down on the No-scaled-not-prey.

But the bad alpha managed to escape, his cloak in tangled shreds revealing the gleam of hard, reflective stone beneath, scratched but not damaged beyond that. Ember leaped off of Storm and the two cornered him against one of the curved portions of wall.

Pearl had just struggled to her paws, wondering if she was even needed, when the bad alpha made his next move, reaching over and _taking off_ what she had assumed was his other arm, wielding it like a metal club and revealing nothing where its arm should be. There was a mad glint in his eyes.

Ember and Storm both hesitated, confused by the strange revelation. The bad alpha set his stance and snarled at them, waving the arm over his head. It was some sort of intimidation tactic.

Then he began roaring, a wordless command for submission. She didn't like that sound, and had never heard its like before; Claw always talked and ordered people around, he didn't roar and demand absolute obedience like this. She found herself wanting to obey just to get the horrible noise to stop, and was glad when Ember and Storm roared right back, silencing him.

"There's black magic at work here," the bad alpha snarled, waving the arm at Ember. "I know that inner turmoil, _boy_."

"Oh, shut up," Storm barked, lunging forward-

Pearl jolted in terror as the bad alpha slammed its false arm down on Storm's head, hitting so hard as to drive her to the ground. Her head _bounced_ off of the stone, and her eyes fluttered closed. The No-scaled-not-prey had not stopped there, either, leaping over her body and sliding down the side, narrowly avoiding Ember's claws and teeth, heading straight for her.

Straight for her, and for the exit directly behind her. Pearl tensed, tried to see with eyes that just would not focus properly, and spread her wings, blocking the way completely. She had no plan, save for the barest of objectives.

The bad alpha slowed for just the smallest fraction of an instant, confused by her admittedly stupid move. That was all it took for Ember to catch up and drive his claws into the No-scaled-not-prey's back, bringing him down. They tangled on the ground, Ember raking deep cuts down the No-scaled-not-prey and hunkering down, letting powerful blows rain down on his sturdy shoulders. An unearthly yelling howl was ripping its way out of the bad alpha, and an ominous clatter of stone on stone and distant voices coming from the corridor outside.

One noise stopped before the other, the horrible howl dying off as its origin died, as Ember dug deeper into the mass of flesh and leather and stolen scale. Pearl had one eye on the exit archway and one on the fight, so she saw the moment Drago's body collapsed into ash, letting Ember hit the floor with a thump, not even leaving the false arm behind.

Ember panted for a few moments, looking worse for the wear, his right wing's leading edge bent at an unnatural angle. He then engulfed himself in flame, his body shrinking and expanding in shape, the flames almost immediately receding to reveal the same wild-eyed No-scaled-not-prey he had just killed, the bad alpha.

Pearl, to her immense embarrassment, could not help an undignified squawk of fear at the look on Ember's rocky, weather old face, even though she knew who it really was behind the terrible eyes.

He closed his eyes, and his breathing sped up. Blood dripped from the many cuts that had been inflicted before the point of no return, and he took a slow, steady step toward the exit.

"Ember?" she quaked. "We need to go now, right? How do we wake Storm?" He would know, he always did. She was more than ready to get out of here.

His eyes snapped open, and he tilted his head as if listening to the sounds of approaching danger. He looked at her, and then the archway. The imposing bulk of No-scaled-not-prey that he currently was worked wonders at making it hard to tell what he was thinking. She wasn't good at interpreting their expressions to start with, and this one barely _had_ expressions that didn't just look like some form of anger.

"Can you talk them into not looking in here so we can sneak out?" Pearl suggested, wondering why he wasn't saying anything.

He walked past her, stopping close enough to touch, looking out at the archway. He raised the false metal arm as if to throw it out into the corridor, and then stopped. His hand shook.

Then, in a move so quick she had no time to react, he brought it down on her head and knocked her out in a single blow.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Oh, you thought it was going to be that easy? That they were just going to show up, kill him, and leave? Sorry, this is** _**All That Remains,** _ **meaning it's tonally identical to** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **meaning this was never going to be as simple as Ember, Storm and Pearl hoped. I look forward to predictions on how this works out, or indeed what has just happened. Again, much can be derived from what was** _**not** _ **in this chapter.**


	8. All That Remains- Subversion (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The second entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer, this chapter's going to be interesting. I think the true twist was easy enough to deduce, but one never knows, and it's going to be a** _**fun** _ **problem to solve either way.**

* * *

Memories still flickered through his mind at a remove, even as Pearl hit the floor. Years of experience and decisions and atrocities and triumphs and failures and everything else. It was overwhelming.

Yet it was not, at the same time. Drago, for all of his many oddities and strength of will, was no different than any of the other sets of memory Ember had perused that night. His memories were more shocking, more urgent, more in need of immediate addressing than those of the guards, but they were not more powerful.

For a brief moment in between killing Drago and taking his form, Ember had worried this would not be the case. He had worried about a strong will and possibly something else clashing with the brokenness of his mind and the strangeness of his abilities; he had certainly never taken the form of someone quite like Drago. What, he had thought frantically, if Drago somehow took over?

That had, of course, been a stupid, baseless worry. Drago's memories were no different than any others.

They were more important, though. A recent string of them, in particular, drove his mind to race and frantically reason through solutions that did not get anyone he cared for killed. He had already performed the first, most necessary step, buying himself a small amount of time, but not much.

Drago's soldiers rushed into the room, having been drawn in by his horrible death cry. Ember held out his good hand at them, and the force of his reputation, his sheer presence, halted them in the archway. He was grateful for that; his half-sister and Pearl lay defenseless on the ground just within, and he did not want them hurt.

"Sir!" the man in the lead blurted out, staring at his missing arm. None of them had known of it before this very moment. Drago had taken great pains to appear dominant, and such an obviously crippling injury could not be allowed to be seen.

Ember knew how Drago would handle this, though; he knew everything Drago would do. He flaunted the stump, shifting his foot to show the mangled metal arm he had dropped just after knocking Pearl out, to let them connect the dots. If it could not be hidden, it would be displayed.

"The invasion has been dealt with," he rasped, his throat sore. His next moves were obvious enough because they were forced moves. If the only issues were the ones Pearl and Storm knew about, this would be easy, but he was working with a much larger, more complicated restraint. A restraint that might come into effect in minutes.

So, he gave orders that made his blood freeze and his insides twist in knots, knowing that there was only one convoluted path to survival, let alone success. "Take these dragons, _leaving them unharmed_ , and put them in the most secure cells. Separate, and alone." A mix of Drago's habits and his own wants, guided by the necessity required to weather what was coming. "Take care with the dark one. If it harms itself, the ones on guard duty will be fed to it. Move quickly."

"Yes, Sir!" several shouted raggedly, but nobody moved.

Ember gestured with his good arm. "These were the only dragons. They attacked alone. _Obey me_." He rasped the last command firmly and stooped to retrieve Drago's bullhook. A careful act was needed; he couldn't drop character for an instant, even if they wouldn't notice.

Whatever his motivations, the inarguable command got them moving. He sat down in the large chair, pulling it over to give him a view of both Storm and Pearl, and pretended to be lost in thought.

In reality, he was not lost so much as frantically navigating his thoughts. This was not an easy problem; he had to match Drago's mannerisms and ways of acting to his own morals and goals, and he had to do it seamlessly, because there was _one_ person who would be able to check after him in a way nobody else would be capable of, one person more than able to shut it all down and harm Pearl and Storm on a whim, one person who could override their wills and control them, who had no moral quandaries, having been raised with none.

The creature Drago only thought of as 'the replacement Second'. The massive egg he had found drifting in the frigid waters of the far North, to outward eyes just another glacier. The creature that had hatched only months ago, that was already mammoth in size, huge, lurking beneath the waters just outside this very mountain.

The creature Ember recognized; its species was the same as the powerful alpha of the ice nest. He did not know the name of the species, but he knew just how dangerous it was, what it could do. Drago knew.

It wouldn't be impossible to fool the new Second; it would be doable, so long as he never let his appearance down for a moment. He had to _act_ like Drago, to continue the plans, to make sure everything he did could easily be seen as Drago going on as normal. Drago did not let the new Second invade his mind through sheer force of personality and dominance, but there was no way to prevent it from reaching out, however weakly, to anyone else in the mountain.

The new Second could check the memories of any of Drago's soldiers, however vaguely. It could check the memories of Pearl, or Storm. It would be touch and go as to whether it would check his own. And it would do so as soon as it woke, because it would notice the new draconic minds available to be taken by its just now strengthening powers, and it would ask him permission, because it _did_ obey him without much objection. There was no way to be sure they could flee in time, even if he somehow roused Pearl and Storm this very minute, fled without any resistance, and flew away as soon as possible. It was going to wake imminently.

He didn't know what he was going to do after the new Second became aware of the situation. After his bluff. If he failed, it very likely was out of his hands. If he succeeded…

Well, if he succeeded, he'd have as much time to plan as he needed, and all of Drago's various minions to dispose of, disband, or use as he pleased, so long as whatever he did was reasonable for Drago to do. If this bluff worked, he had many options, but there was only one way to get to that point.

He continued to pretend to brood as the soldiers returned bearing ropes and manacles and chains, though in reality the hawk-like eyes he currently possessed carefully oversaw the repulsive but necessary process of taking the freedom from the only two people he had left in the world.

It was only the coldness of his heart that already existed that let him watch impassively, and even then he had to remind himself that there was _literally_ no other option. Storm and Pearl had to be caged, put away, allowed to panic and maybe despair, if only for a little while. He would make sure they were well-treated, and he _definitely_ was not going to let Second loose on either of them, but the mental anguish they both would suffer had to happen. The new Second would check them, and it was going to be hard enough to bluff his way past what Storm and Pearl knew already, though he thought he could do it. Vithvarandi, of all people, had given him the idea that would let him lie his way around what they had seen.

It had to happen. He couldn't help but picture Pearl alone in the rough stone room he knew would hold her, isolated and betrayed, fearing for her life and maybe for him, depending on what she thought had happened. That mental image sickened him beyond belief, but it had to happen anyway. To save her life, her mind, and her freedom, it had to happen.

He watched as the two females who were all he had left in the world were taken away, and he trusted that the absolute fear Drago instilled in his men at every opportunity would keep them from further harm.

Then he sent Drago's soldiers away and retreated to the innermost room of Drago's quarters, because Drago would have done that. They knew better than to ask if he needed medical attention, or if he knew why the attack had happened, or what his plans were, or even if he had any further orders. He would summon them if so.

Alone, in the quarters of the man he had wanted dead, Ember felt sick to his heart, but he didn't let it show. The only place his true feelings could reside was his own mind, and there only because he could not help it.

He sat, motionless, in the dark, his wounds sluggishly ceasing to bleed, down an arm and worried, and waited for the mental confrontation that was coming. That, as strange and self-destructive as it was, truly _was_ what Drago would do.

O-O-O-O-O

A long time later, the first Ember felt of that which he had waited for was a timid mental prodding, a strange feeling unlike any he had ever known.

"Speak," he growled into the emptiness of the dark room. Drago had not known how this worked, and truly had not cared, so he didn't have much to go on as to _what,_ exactly, the new Second was doing, or how it heard him. He just knew that all he needed to accomplish _should_ work so long as the new Second stayed away from his memories and believed him to be its alpha, as it had Drago.

' _The new females. Mine.'_

"No!" he burst out, for once in complete agreement with how Drago should respond. His response would have been identical, for entirely different reasons. "Mine. Not yours."

' _They have strange memories. Strange…'_

"Out of their minds!" he screamed into the darkness. "Submit! I did not allow you that!" A hint of worry wormed its way up into his mind, but he ruthlessly quashed it. What the new Second found was not damning, not so long as his reputation and his act was good enough to leave it confused, not certain he was an imposter.

' _You are not alpha,'_ the new Second said accusingly. _'The white female thinks the orange male that is not present killed alpha, and that you took his place…'_

Ember could distinctly feel the tendrils of power pushing hesitantly at the borders of his mind, though he believed it was only the new Second's confusion and thus hesitation that allowed that. If they took his memories, or even just the current thoughts circling in his mind, he would be doomed. Pearl and Storm would be doomed.

"Out!" he roared. "I am your alpha! The _boy_ failed to account for who he was trying to kill."

' _Your mind is different… and there is something lurking in it…'_

The new Second's mental voice was worried, now, and he clearly didn't know what to think.

"The boy tried to take me over, as is his power," Ember laughed cruelly. "Such stupidity. He _knew_ it might not work in his favor. I _am_ him now, stronger than ever!"

Ember resisted the urge to hold his breath as he waited for a response.

' _The white female's memories… This "Ember" killed you… but she remembers him speaking of another like himself, and of being two people… Is it truly you, alpha?'_

"Nothing has changed. I am _more_ powerful now," Ember gritted. "Submit."

' _Yes, alpha.'_

Ember didn't dare let up yet; the tendril was still lurking just outside his mind. He was trying to control something far more powerful than himself, and unlike Drago, he considered that a really, really stupid thing to do. But it was necessary. "The females are mine, not yours, destined for the soon-to-be Third's use. Nothing has changed. Submit, and await further orders. And do not speak to me." Drago hated hearing the new Second's mental voice with an intensity that bordered on insanity; usually, communication was far more one-sided than this, and done in person.

' _Yes, alpha,'_ the New Second repeated mournfully. _'But you will bring me more servants to practice on soon?'_

"Do not speak to me!" Ember exclaimed angrily.

Silence, both mental and physical. The tendril withdrew entirely.

Ember let himself slump down and sigh. The danger was past; Drago had a very hands-off approach to the new Second, aside from routinely exercising his power over the massive dragon to retain control. As long as he kept up the act in public, he was safe.

For now. Ember's eyes narrowed. He had a _lot_ to figure out, and not infinite time to do so in. The war Drago planned to wage was going to come sooner or later, and stalling for time would only look natural for so long, as Drago had already amassed a truly frightening force. Even now, men were gathering, ships were being outfitted, and war was being planned. Against everyone around the mountain, a dispersed campaign to gather even more strength. Then against the dragons in the area, using the secured supplies to collect a fearsome host for the new Second. _Then_ against the ice nest and the dragon rider, who Drago had never personally seen in the flesh.

Ember paused over those few memories, a hint of curiosity sparking in him despite his deep unhappiness and current situation. The rider was masked, menacing, atop a four-winged dragon, causing havoc and freeing captive dragons in every direction.

In short, he or she was doing what he would have done as Hiccup, long ago. Given he was going to dismantle Drago's forces, they would likely never meet, but he could appreciate that from afar.

What else did Drago know that he could use? He closed his eyes and went over everything Drago had seen, heard, been told, or otherwise known, all of his plans and allies, his strengths, and his weaknesses. It was truly amazing what could be learned when one had the memories of the enemy's Chief, and had he not been so cold and tired and worried and disgusted by the very act of perusing Drago's past, he would have marveled at it.

But he had only revenge to keep him afloat, and that did not allow amazement. Revenge, and protecting the two dragons currently languishing in cells far below him.

This was going to take a lot of planning.

O-O-O-O-O

Over the next week, Ember planned. There was just so much to go through and deal with, and he could not put any of it into motion before he knew how it all had to fall out. The constant pain Drago's body dealt with didn't help, and neither did the need to keep up appearances. Luckily, that was not nearly as difficult as it could have been; Drago had been mostly holed up in his quarters since returning to the mountain. It was easy to keep that isolation as a shield between him and the men he planned to betray.

He did not go see Pearl or Storm, either, though he desperately wanted to. Dispassionate reports on their condition, delivered by those in charge of observing them, didn't help. Pearl spent most of her time asleep or lying still, and that did not bode well. Storm had needed to be restrained for her own safety, which didn't surprise him. He was going to have to make up for the torment they were going through once this part of his revenge was over.

And he wanted it over, he so desperately wanted it done, for their sakes and for his own. He wanted to move on to Viggo, and then to finally rest. But doing things badly would mean dealing with Drago's forces again later, if his luck was anything to go by, and that was not acceptable.

And _then_ there were the things he hadn't even anticipated occasionally throwing him for a loop. One such thing delayed the conclusion of his planning by an entire day.

It was a stressful, boring, horrible week, and nothing of note happened. He, Storm, and Pearl suffered in various ways, and the rest of Drago's forces continued life as they had before he had secretly taken over. But by the end of the week, he had everything ready to begin.

O-O-O-O-O

"These go to the Southern scouts," Ember commanded brusquely, throwing a leather satchel at the first guard he saw, stalking through the main housing section of the mountain. He was devoid of Drago's usual cloak and false arm, and several more satchels hung from the stump that was all that remained of Drago's shoulder. The bullhook was across his back; when this was all over, he planned to snap it in half, but until then it would be downright suspicious for him not to have it.

"These to the recruiters in the West," he continued, pulling another satchel off of his shoulder and roughly tossing it. "And these to the reserves in the East. They're to do as I say, no matter what happens."

Scattered shouts of assent came back to him as various soldiers ran off; him sending messages that far out meant that they needed to prepare the designated ships, not just pass the messages to supply and communication ships already going that way. Some of the groups he had orders for had operated independently for months prior to this.

He wasn't going to be able to get the furthest scatterings of Drago's forces; they were just too far away to bring here and destroy with the main bulk of his fleet and army. The orders he was sending out should do the job on their own, though.

The scouts would be told to aggressively probe a territorial tribe that had a habit of killing first and never asking questions. The recruiters were likewise being sent to territory so hostile Drago had told them to avoid it for the time being. The Eastern reserves were already fighting and losing a minor war all on their own; he had just ordered them to not back down no matter what instead of sending reinforcements as Drago had intended to do.

Ember had absolutely no problem giving orders that would get people killed. Not in this case; Drago's soldiers chose to follow him. They always had the option of defecting, if they thought to take it. Word of what was about to happen here would reach them sooner or later, so if they survived their new orders that long, they would know he wasn't going to come check up on their efforts.

It wasn't assured that any of this would work, but it was the best he could do to ensure none of those forces came back to try and continue Drago's aims, or just to cause more than minor trouble in the area. If he was going to do this, he was going to be thorough.

That done, he stopped in the middle of a barren common room and pulled out his bullhook, slamming the butt of the staff on the stone floor with an ominous crack. "I want _everyone_ on the ships by sundown!" he roared, knowing that those who weren't around to hear would get the message by word of mouth. "Every guard, every soldier, every man on this island! We sail at dawn!"

There was no cheering and no rowdy laughter, as he had half expected even though he knew better. These were not Vikings going to war, they were soldiers who had long since learned to fear their leader above all else. Salutes and quick departures were all he got in response.

These men knew what Drago was; they had seen him perpetrate countless atrocities. They chose to follow him. What was more, Drago had a habit of only recruiting those who were already hardened killers. These men had been given chances to avoid what was coming. All who followed Drago had.

Almost all, anyway. He grimaced at that thought; this was easy enough to do, but there were a few things he was going to struggle with when the time came. Two people who had been given no choice. One was corrupt to the core, and the other might not be quite yet.

At least he had Drago's memories to judge them by, as well as his own morals, however compromised those might be by necessity. He would have made the wrong calls in those two cases, had he not the perspective of their entire lives as seen by Drago.

O-O-O-O-O

"Sir, what are we to do with the dragons?" The soldier clearly didn't want to approach him, but he feared being blamed for a mistake more. "Second, and the two you defeated. Are we bringing them?"

"No," he growled, glaring at the man. "We go to war, and Second has served his purpose. Leave them all to starve in their cells." This _was_ out of character for Drago, but not by much, and Ember of course had no intention of actually letting Storm or Pearl starve. Second…

He had to deal with Second at some point, but that couldn't be done until this was complete. Second, he would save for last.

"Yes, Sir!" the man said vehemently, knowing that to show doubt was to ask for pain.

Ember looked away from the soldier, dismissing him, and continued to stare out at the preparations being made for war. Food was being loaded, last-minute repairs feverishly completed, men marching onto ships to claim their bunks and wait for departure… The hollowed-out bay was more active than Drago had ever seen it in life. _Every_ ship was going.

Something occurred to him, a little detail he had forgotten, and he grimaced. Not every ship. It couldn't be every ship. One needed to stay behind, a small one.

He rose from his perch overlooking the organized chaos and stalked down to give the necessary orders, the ones that would leave a simple fishing vessel in the bay. Nobody would question it; with a fleet this size, one less ship to manage would be a benefit.

Later, alone in his quarters while the new Second slept, he shed the form of Drago for the first time in over a week, returning to his favored body, that of the Night Fury named Ember.

He had forgotten those last few frantic moments for a while. The feeling of clawing into Drago, of separating flesh from bone, of weathering the bone-breaking blows of the man's false arm wielded by his real one.

But it had happened, and this body bore one important new injury. He gingerly flexed his wing, wincing at the searing pain of a broken bone. It was new, as if broken only seconds ago, and it hurt far more than Drago's many injuries did because of that.

He was grounded for the time being. Not permanently, and he was pretty sure that Pearl and Storm could cobble together a makeshift splint under his direction, though that promised to be a drawn-out exercise in frustration, but for the moment he was incapable of flight.

Just one more complication; it was a good thing he hadn't decided to try and flee despite the chance of being caught by the new Second. They would have had to leave him behind, and he was entirely sure Pearl wouldn't have.

Pearl… His heart twinged with powerful guilt, and he grimaced as he shifted back to Drago's form. He owed her such a huge apology for this last week. Hopefully she would trust him again after she understood; he didn't think he would be able to stand her big, innocent red eyes regarding him with hate or disappointment.

Or Storm, but she would probably hate him for this regardless of his apologies, and he was inured to her disapproval.

Soon. Soon, the overseeing mind that made revealing himself too dangerous would be dealt with. Soon, the mountain would be empty for good, left to whoever wanted it in the future. All he had to do was wait, and then give the final, necessary orders.

O-O-O-O-O

The day dawned bright and sunny, but the sun felt sullied to him, darkened and dirtied by reflecting off of the grim fleet setting out from the mountain. There was not a single guard, servant, or human of any designation left in the mountain. Nobody was stupid enough to disobey Drago for the meager prize of starving to death in a fortress emptied of food.

Importantly, he also knew which ships carried which kinds of men, having organized the fleet himself. Drago's most trusted, the men most like himself and most loyal to him, were on the biggest warships. The men he had recently recruited, the ones who were by definition vicious but not yet proven, were on the smaller warships. The ships retrofitted for war, the ones least likely to survive a fight, were crewed by those who didn't fight for a living, the ones who just allowed the army to function by handling the menial tasks. They would not be fighting; their job was to keep everyone else supplied from the stores they brought with them.

They all, soldier and servant alike, sailed over a specific section of the ocean around the mountain, following his orders. The new Second was directly below them.

For a while, he had contemplated ordering the new Second to obliterate the fleet. It would have been an easy solution, to entomb all of Drago's soldiers in ice. An execution, one fell swoop.

And if he had been able to do it, to order it, he would have descended too far into darkness to ever return. He would be a monster, just like Vithvarandi. That was not the answer; he could not do it, no matter how justly deserved it would be for most of them.

But the new Second did have one part to play in the true solution. Two, really, but this part came first. Ember stood at the front of his ship and began to howl, to swing his bullhook and project dominance over the seemingly empty ocean.

Doing this made him feel dirty and evil, but it was the only way to summon the new Second from afar, so it had to be done, even if he knew all too well the many times Drago had used it to intimidate and dishearten his foes before he had them killed.

The water to the North of the fleet erupted as the new Second burst out into the open. He was not nearly as large as the ice nest alpha, not yet, but he still made quite the impression, because while he was _relatively_ small and still had a lot of growing to do, he was _absolutely_ massive.

"Sail toward it," he commanded those directing his ship. "When I depart, follow the fleet and engage the enemy. I will return with another army to finish the job, but if I find it not mostly done by the time I arrive, all will suffer."

The sailors saluted; the ones on his personal vessel were the worst of the worst, the hardened elite almost as bad as himself, and would remain loyal even if they _knew_ he was sending them to a battle they would not win, or that he never planned to come reinforce them with another army. Even more importantly, they were his enforcers, and their fanaticism extended to ensuring the rest of his army would not falter or change the plan he had given them.

As they sailed closer, the new Second's eyes fixed on him. Two stubby, half-grown tusks dipped in the water, but nothing was said mentally. The new Second knew Drago hated that, and this was not an urgent matter.

"Hold still!" Ember commanded as the ship pulled up alongside the massive white dragon. When they were close enough, he jumped over, clinging to a spike just above the waterline.

The ship returned to the fleet, and the fleet continued sailing. Drago did not usually abandon them like this, but they would await an explanation, and when his most trusted soldiers told them that he would be meeting them later with more troops, they would believe. It was a very Drago thing to do, sending an army and threatening pain if they did not deliver by the time he arrived. He threatened a lot, but he also carried out his threats more often than not.

"Wait," he commanded, climbing up to the top of the new Second's head. It took a very long time, especially with one arm, but he managed. It was a way to assert strength and a way to pass the time. By noon he was seated on the massive dragon's brow, watching the fleet depart.

When they were specks on the horizon, he began the next part of his solution by thumping his bullhook on the very base of a small spine, knowing that it would hurt far more than it should given the dragon's size, like stubbing a toe unexpectedly.

"I am going to test you," he announced cruelly, knowing that said phrase was familiar to the new Second, and always came with a cruel requirement either intended to solidify loyalty or demonstrate power for other subordinates. "I will give you directions. You will go to the place I say and take control. I will already be there, watching and waiting. You will not fail."

' _Yes alpha,'_ the new Second murmured mentally, unable to convey his meaning any other way given where Ember was currently sitting. _'But you will not travel with me? Are the others going there now?'_

"No," Ember grunted, aware that Drago would explain just enough to ensure the new Second feared failure, no matter how much he despised being questioned. "I will use the power I took from the boy to go there ahead of you. I will be watching." He didn't mention consequences; it would look foolish to promise that he would track the new Second down if he just went somewhere else and never looked back. Only the ingrained obedience Drago had instilled since hatching stopped the new Second from doing exactly that at any time.

' _I am to go now?'_

"Yes." Ember gruffly gave directions to a place he had been only a few weeks ago. The ice nest.

His true reasoning for this, not the false explanation he had just given, was simple. Drago had deeply feared his greatest weapon being defeated or turned upon him, and knew that the new Second was still very much inexperienced, if not actually a child. This, combined with the fact that the new Second was still very much smaller than the alpha of the ice nest, gave an easy solution. He was just doing the same thing he had done with Drago's human troops in sending them directly against Viggo's island. Viggo would destroy them with tactics and cunning, and the alpha of the ice nest would defeat this smaller, weaker opponent with relative ease.

"Take me to the mountain and then go," he ordered gruffly, wishing he could fly. It would make a far more dramatic exit, and would be totally in-character for Drago to do. Then he remembered that, by all evidence, dragons were far more vulnerable to the mental probing the new Second used, and was glad he hadn't made that mistake. It was one thing to trust this dragon to do his bidding, and quite another to put himself so obviously at his mercy like that.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember stood at a window near the top floor of the mountain complex, staring out at the starlit ocean. He was almost certain he could _feel_ the new Second's absence; there was something about the lack of a developing mental power nearby that could not be mistaken for his imagination. After living next to it for more than a week, he knew when it was missing. It was as if he had been hearing the tide every waking moment for days, and then suddenly it was missing.

The fleet was also gone. The mountain was empty, and barring some unforeseen complication, none would ever return.

It was possible, even likely, that some _would_ return; his plans never turned out entirely right, and this was by no means certain. But he had done his best to dispose of all of Drago's empire, his whole legacy, and could do no more. He had to keep moving, lest he stop long enough to be overwhelmed by the cold darkness again. That couldn't happen until he was done taking revenge.

Three dragons waited, thirsty and alone, in the stone far below him. Each one was a different challenge, and each could not wait any longer. He turned away from the window and began the long trek down to put an end to this part of his last journey, so that the next could begin.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl lay limply in the stone box, feeling worse than she had in moon-cycles. She could count the times she had felt more hopeless on a single paw, and have claws to spare when she was done, and this time there _really_ wasn't any hope. Only future torture and current discomfort.

Why had she listened to the alpha of the ice nest? Why had she let Ember come here? Why had she come too? It had all gone so very, very wrong the moment revenge came up. Now she was here, alone and cold and thirsty, and probably left to die or just to suffer a while. Water should have come long since, and food with it, but it had not. She could not tell time, which made this all the worse.

Ember was gone; the bad alpha had taken him over, or _something_. She had held out hope for a few days, but there was no explanation for why he would leave her here! She felt she knew him better than to think he could leave her to suffer, he likedher, even if not in the way she wanted.

She didn't want to know what that bad alpha had done. She just wanted to go back to the moment they had talked about sending him to get revenge, and do it differently to avoid this end. Maybe she could even have stopped this just by firing at them in those last frantic moments, to take the kill for herself, but going back further would make it all so much easier.

That was all fantasy so it didn't matter. She had spent a lot of time fantasizing about ways her life could have gone better; the short time of relative happiness she had spent with Ember and Storm had seemed to promise that this sort of thing was over, and she wanted to hold on to that happy, vague thought of the future being as good as or even better than those few days.

Then she heard a deep voice, one she knew couldn't mean anything good even as her heart leapt and she scrambled to her paws.

"It's over," Ember's voice said sadly. "I finished it. I'm so, so sorry you had to be in here, I'm sorry it couldn't be helped, I'm sorry, but it's over now."

Before she could respond, a grinding of stone on stone caught her attention, and she stared as one of the walls just slid back, giving her access to a stone corridor that was open on either end, and a dark wing with many scars, a bent and broken wing, and a heartbroken, shattered look in his eyes, laying on the stone.

The sight made her sad, because she knew she couldn't believe it. "No," she whined, staying where she was. "I know he wouldn't have done this, there was no reason, _Second_ wanders freely, I could have too with the barest of excuses and some acting. You are not him, you killed him somehow. You're the same bad alpha he fought. So, no."

"There was a reason, though," the bad alpha said in Ember's voice, sounding as terribly guilty and sad as he looked, though it had to be an act. "You remember the ice nest? The alpha who spoke with his mind and said he would not do more even though he _could_?"

"Yes… " She wanted so very badly to believe it really was him, but at the same time knew she couldn't.

"There was another like him here, and I found that out the moment I looked through Drago's memories," the creature who just _might_ be Ember but probably wasn't either explained or lied. "I knew that he would wake, and that he would look through your minds, and we might not have made it out in time, so I tricked you to save us and you, I kept him out of your minds after that first look, and now he's gone so I can drop the act." He was rambling now, and whining besides, but that could be an act too…

"You think that would make this okay?" Pearl asked incredulously. At any moment, the bad alpha would realize he wasn't getting through to her and would move on to whatever was next, be it locking her up again or letting her starve or just having his way with her. If he did the last one she would try to stop him, but other than that she had no options.

"No, nothing makes this okay, but he could read your thoughts and I could not think of anything better," the one who might be Ember whined. "If you knew then he would try to take me over, and he definitely would take you over, and you'd never think for yourself again. He did it to Second, just to try it out, and Drago tested its limits. He could have done terrible things with you and Storm and you'd never be aware enough to know it. I had to stop that, even if it meant making you hate me for good reason. I'm sorry, so sorry…"

Pearl knew what he meant by terrible things; this new Second could have forced Second on Storm immediately, bypassing the issues with that and just making it happen. She didn't even know that such an atrocity _hadn't_ happened; it was not as if she even knew if Storm was still alive.

"If you're really him, take me to Storm and let me hear her agree with you," she proposed doubtfully.

"I came to you first," Ember or the bad alpha muttered sadly. "I couldn't stand thinking of you in here a moment longer than necessary."

"And not your half-sister?" Pearl questioned. She was beginning to believe despite herself, because what else could she do? Her entire life felt like a string of terrible things, and here was Ember, once again offering to save her from it. This _could_ be the next in that very string of pain and disappointment, but it could also be a dream come true, and after so long languishing in despair, she couldn't _not_ believe. Throwing away this one, last hope was beyond her.

"I came to you first. But you can come with me when I tell her. You're free, you can just fly away if you feel like it. I'm not holding you here." There was definite sorrow in his voice at that last suggestion in particular, though she was pretty sure he didn't realize it, and _that_ did more to convince her than anything else. He wasn't trying to throw himself into her embrace, he wasn't using the attraction she felt, as the bad alpha probably would, he was just apologizing and saying she could go in a way that made her feel like he somehow felt _more_ guilty than he should.

"Really?" she whined, still not moving from the cell she so desperately wanted to never see again.

"Really. I would…" He shook his head. "I would see you safe, and I'm not done with war and revenge yet, not by a long shot. So, I want you to go, but I don't at the same time. Having you around is nice, but I don't deserve that anymore after what I did."

"If that's really you, then I'm not going anywhere," Pearl said firmly. If it _was_ him then he had some more apologizing and explaining to do, for sure, but she wasn't ready to strike out on her own at all, and the only other thing she might have going on was going back to the valley with Storm, which she didn't feel ready for either. "Take me to Storm."

"Okay." He rose and made to approach her-

"No," she barked, flinching away the moment he passed into the stone chamber that had been her prison. "I don't entirely believe you yet. Don't touch me or even come close to me." If this was the No-scaled-not-prey alpha, she didn't want it anywhere near her, and if it was Ember, well, he deserved a cold reception after leaving her to her misery and despair for so long.

"Sorry," he whined, turning away and heading down one of the corridors. "I understand, and I'm sorry."

She followed, having no other real choice, and tried to hold down the warmth in her chest at the very act of setting paw out in the world beyond her cell. When she saw and felt open air and sky, she would rejoice at freedom. When she believed beyond a doubt that this was really Ember, she would celebrate his survival, and when she had forgiven him for this, she would keep chasing him, if she still wanted to. All of that was on hold until she was convinced.

Of course, there was every chance she'd feel guilty for this once she was sure, but that could be dealt with later. Storm would help; knowing her, she'd want to give Ember a few scars for this, even if she did believe him right away.

At that… "What are we doing next?" she asked, following him through the seemingly empty mountain. He walked without fear of being caught or stopped, which _might_ be because there was nobody around, or it might be because he was the bad alpha and had already made sure nobody would be in the area. There was no way to be sure.

"First we get Storm out," he said quietly, making her strain to hear him. "Then I find out whether there's any good left in Second, any at all."

"What?!" Pearl barked. She didn't think she had heard that right. "He _eats other dragons!_ "

"I saw pretty much his entire life," Ember replied, still quiet and withdrawn. "He's done horrible things. But none of that was really _his_ choice. He could have fled, but he has a weird thing about being loyal, and I can _remember_ Drago shaping him and his brother, forcing them to be horrible, setting them against each other… There might still be something worth saving in him. I can't just kill him until I know for sure."

"And if there's not?" Pearl asked.

"Then Storm can kill him," Ember sighed. "She will want to either way, and she would not be wrong to do so." He stopped in front of a stick in the ground, one just like all the others they had passed, and examined some lines scratched into stone on the wall. "This is her cell."

They were already there? Well, it made sense all the cells were together. "Let her out, if you're really Ember," Pearl half requested and half begged. She would go up to him and paw at his shoulder if she didn't fear this all being a trick and loathe the idea of the bad alpha touching her while wearing Ember's stolen body.

"Well, okay, but you have to help me hold her off if she comes out firing," Ember said carefully. "I don't know what she thinks is going on. She got knocked out in the fight, remember?"

"Oh, right." Pearl wished Storm had suffered the same apparent treachery she had. It would be far easier to just rely on the more cynical, older female if she had been in the exact same situation. "Okay."

"Here goes nothing," Ember grumbled, shoving his paws against the stick and bending it to the floor, though the sounds it made did not match with wood bending and breaking. The stone wall began to recede, just like hers had…

Behind it stood Storm, her eyes narrow and her claws out. Those narrow, angry eyes widened as they saw Pearl, Ember, and nobody else.

"Well, _finally!_ " Storm barked happily, walking out into the corridor as if she hadn't a care in the world. "What took so long?"

"Issues with mind-reading dragons and trying to make sure Drago's army never bothers anyone again," Ember said quietly, looking away from her. "You had to not know what was going on. I'm sorry, this was all my fault…."

"I am too relieved that you are not Second to be very mad right now, so I will roar at you for whatever it is you are sorry for later," Storm said almost giddily. "So, is it done? Are we good to get out of this stinking pile of rock?"

Pearl felt her jaw drop at how _easily_ that had gone, and judging by Ember's wide eyes she wasn't the only one surprised. Did Storm really believe him, just like that, and have no problems with being captive for a long time?

"Funny you speak of Second, actually," Ember said tentatively. "I've dealt with pretty much everything else, but not him. Not yet. I was planning to do that next."

"Where is he?" Storm barked. "I will kill him now, problem solved. Then we can go get some fish and turn our tails on this place."

"He's in a cell," Ember began.

"Change of plans, then," Storm immediately declared. "We go get fish, have a long flight, and _then_ kill him. Make him wait," she concluded with a sadistic purr.

"Well, I will not be flying," was the quiet reply, along with a dip of a visibly broken wing. "I have another way to leave here, so it is fine. But we should deal with him first, and I need you to _not_ kill him immediately."

"What could you possibly want me to do instead?" Storm asked suspiciously. "And why does it matter? I want to kill him."

"For _not_ doing anything to you?" Ember asked sarcastically, surprising Pearl with the first genuine annoyance he had shown this entire time. "I want to check something, and I'll need you to play along. I would want Pearl to as well, but…"

"No way," Pearl said firmly. "Storm, he killed Drago right after you got knocked out, but then he knocked _me_ out."

"Did he?" Storm looked from Ember to Pearl, and then back again. She didn't seem that concerned. "What do you think happened while you were out? I do not think he would do that."

Pearl cringed at the very thought. "What, no, not that," she hastily clarified. "I just am not sure this is really him. It might be the bad alpha using him because something went very wrong." Said now, to Storm, out in the open with no apparent trap to be had, it seemed very silly and far-fetched, but Storm hadn't seen, and Storm hadn't…

Well, Storm hadn't spent a week having nightmares about it, and despairing, and going in circles in her mind about what was going on only to give up hope. Storm probably just thought Ember was dead… and she seemed more or less fine.

"I did not see Second once, and the bad alpha was trying to force us together at every opportunity," Storm said, her voice light and airy. "And letting family wait in suspense for him is something Ember's done before. It is probably him."

"It _is_ me," Ember agreed solemnly. "But I'm not pressing Pearl on it. So, Storm, will you help me deal with Second _my way_?"

"Tell me what you want me to do, and maybe I will consider it," Storm growled. "But I already do not think I will like it."

"Probably not, but I want to push him to his limits and find out what he will do," Ember agreed. "I'm hoping for one reaction in particular."

"And if you get it?"

"We'll figure that out when we get there. It's not likely. If we don't get that reaction out of him, you can kill him."

"What response could possibly justify letting him live?" Storm barked angrily.

"I'm not telling you because we both know you will try and get him to _not_ do whatever it is," Ember said. Pearl couldn't help but think that was a fair accusation; Storm looked positively annoyed by him saying that, but she didn't object.

"Well, whatever we do, I am going to get fish first," Storm grumbled. "Tell me after, but tell me where the nearest exit is first."

"Just follow me. This place is huge. I'll wait for you to come back after you've eaten." Ember began walking down another corridor, heading somewhere. _Probably_ the nearest way outside.

Pearl found herself almost convinced; there really didn't seem to be anything the No-scaled-not-prey alpha would gain from all of this, and more importantly…

More importantly, Ember still seemed less depressed and more alive than before. If anyone, even someone with his memories as his ability allowed, were to try and fake being him, they would not be acting this way. They would be falling back to how he had acted the entire time either she or Storm had known him. She was not a devious person, but even she could see that.

Then, a short time later, Ember stopped and stepped aside, she turned a corner, and she could see something else. The moon and stars, above an endless expanse of water.

She flung herself out into the sky without a second thought. The next little while was spent lost in the joys of being free once more, and she didn't think about Ember or Drago or her own difficulties at all.

All she knew was that she was free.

But once she calmed down and started thinking again, and noticed that in her revelry she was almost out of sight of the mountain, she was sure. This was Ember; on top of everything else, he had not even tried to stop her. Sure, it could be tricky manipulation, it could be a long game that got him something he could not get if he revealed himself now, but she just didn't think that was it. The bad alpha wasn't a schemer; he had killed Gold for no reason, and Pearl was pretty sure that was a bad move for anyone who tried to get the most out of a situation by planning and plots.

She didn't believe it; everything was, if not well, then infinitely better than she had thought. Her life might still break out of the cycle of bad things and pain and misery. This might still be the start of a better existence. Here, diving and swooping in the cold night sky, she could believe that.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Another reason I went with the other possible answer in canon was this segment of the story; getting rid of Drago's forces requires either summary and skipping over what happened here, bloated subplots that cover the same beats his brief time on Drago's ship did, or outright ridiculous OOC moments (such as Ember having the Bewilderbeast just trash Drago's fleet, or leaving it all as it was after seeing through Drago's memories just how much of a problem his assembled forces would be). Because this story isn't even really about the villains, let alone Drago in general,** _**let alone** _ **his forces and subordinates after he dies, it wouldn't make much sense to spend too much time on them. I think I did a passable job of skimming over it without hitting any major pitfalls aside from the first listed compromise.**

**Or maybe not. Well, at least this isn't canon. That doesn't take any pressure off when it comes to trying my best, but it** _**does** _ **relieve a lot of my worry over whether my best does the story justice; I** _**have** _ **intentionally handicapped myself by following the path I deemed suboptimal. It would be foolish to expect doing so to be easy or quite as good as canon. It's still interesting, and that's really all one needs for an AU miniseries, something interesting with a story to tell and enough pull to keep my attention long enough to tell it.**


	9. All That Remains - Departure (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The third entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer, this chapter was fun to write. Despite its difficulties, there were some parts of this potential path that I couldn't resist, and what's coming next, the entire arc associated with it, was one of them.**

* * *

Second knew that he was being punished; he didn't know for what, exactly, but that just meant it was a continuation of his ongoing punishment for failure.

He brought his finless tail around to look at, and stared at the tiny, almost invisible nubs on both sides. They were truly miniscule, and the wound had only just healed; had he not the words of the strange creature known as Ember, he would assume they were just flaws in his body's healing process, little lumps not destined to become anything more.

But they weren't pointless lumps, they were the first signs of a new tail coming someday. Long from now, probably, but someday. Someday, he would recover.

If his alpha did not just keep tearing his fins off as they grew in. It would be just like his alpha to do so; something taken away was not to be taken back without permission. It would be part of his punishment, just as being forced to hold out his tail while his alpha stamped on and mangled it beyond recognition before brutally tearing the remains off by hand had been part of his punishment.

He was Third now, for sure, though he did not yet think of himself as Third. There had been sweeping passes of his alpha's newest acquisition through his mind in the last few days, and with them hints that the one he had helped teach obedience would soon be taking his mind as forfeit. That the new Second had since then entirely let go of his mind for some unknown reason was not comforting. He would be back, perhaps when his power was done developing, and then Second would lose his will once more.

He did not particularly dread that day. It would be a relief. He was not _quite_ so far gone as to want to die or never think for himself again, but it was becoming a tempting prospect.

Especially when being dead or senseless would mean he did not have to feel the gnawing hunger in his stomach, the growing need for water that would, if past deprivation had proved anything, eventually reduce him to drinking his own wastewater in desperation. He did not look forward to that.

The isolation was not bad, though. He didn't mind being away from his alpha's other servants, or even from his alpha-

No, that was disloyal, and he should not be thinking it. He was _loyal_. Third hadn't been, and he might now be called Third, but that did not mean he was just as bad as his brother, not yet.

Second was broken from his aimlessly circling thoughts by the telltale sounds of the stone doorway pulling open, and he respectfully stood, ignoring the throbbing headache a lack of water always brought on. Pain or humiliation would follow, they always did, but he was loyal.

His alpha stepped into the room, eyes gleaming with intent as always, and adjusted the cloak on his shoulder.

Here, Second noticed something just the tiniest bit odd; it was a different cloak. He knew that it had to be from the same source as the usual one, but the pattern of scales was different. Was it meant to tell him something, or was it just that the old cloak had been worn out, or that it had met some accident? He didn't know.

"Time to make up for your failings," his alpha rasped, gesturing behind himself.

Second couldn't help his eyes widening as Storm stepped into the chamber, her eyes downcast and her ears limp. As shocking as her presence was her lack of defiance; she wasn't even muzzled, but she acted as if she had no choice but to obey. He had thought, in the brief time he had interacted with her, that she was as unbreakable as her namesake, someone whose spirit could not be tamed, only weathered.

It seemed he was wrong; he should not have doubted his alpha's capabilities. But this meant…

This meant that he was _definitely_ in for more pain and more punishment and possibly even the death that did not seem so unattractive, or just the oblivion offered by losing the privilege of thinking at all.

He was going to suffer because this was the _one_ thing he just couldn't do, no matter the consequences. He was better than Third in this way, and he just couldn't let that go by doing as his alpha wanted.

"Well?" his alpha rasped, kicking at Storm as she passed by, causing her to flinch and walk faster, "get to it." He made no move to leave, obviously intent on watching to be sure he was obeyed.

Second tried to meet Storm's eyes, but she wouldn't look up, not even as she huddled in the corner furthest from him. She did not seem quite as broken as many of the females he had been forced upon in the past, but it would be more than enough for this.

"I cannot, alpha, as I said before," he objected, looking down at the stone and waiting for the blow to fall.

And it did, smashing across his shoulders, though not as hard as he had expected. His alpha wanted him capable of performing, not in senseless agony, so that made sense.

"Do it!" his alpha roared, slamming his hand against the wall and producing an ear-ringing sound that hurt his already aching head.

"I cannot," he repeated stubbornly, not moving a muscle. The next blow fell on the same place, and this time he flinched, more from the sudden force than pain. He was used to pain.

The process repeated itself until his body ached in most places, his alpha moving around him and screaming, yelling, wordlessly demanding submission. Second prostrated himself, but otherwise did not resist. But he also did not concede; this one thing would not be done, if it was the death of him. It was all he had left.

Storm was watching him too, from her place in the corner, her downcast eyes occasionally flicking up toward the scene playing out in front of her. He wished she was not here; it was just going to hurt her, and him. She should have flown free, not come back. At least then he could have served his alpha without reserve.

"So," his alpha eventually ground out, stamping a boot in right in front of his face, "you think you can pick and choose what you do? What orders to follow?"

He couldn't respond; that _was_ what he was doing. He was disloyal on this one subject. But it was all he had.

"Do you think it will go better for _her_?" was the next snarled question, along with a finger pointing at the cowed Storm. "Do you think I will not find a way to use her to get what I want, with or without you?"

Second _did_ think he wouldn't be able to manage it; it was not as if his alpha had any other subordinate dark wings, assuming the strange orange one was long gone.

Could he assume that? Suddenly, he felt a flutter of unease in his heaving chest, and he glanced over at Storm. Maybe his alpha had the orange one, maybe its strangeness had not saved it, maybe this was his last chance to be anything in his master's eyes. Maybe he was going to be replaced in all ways if he did not do this.

Any price must be paid. He closed his eyes, knowing that however much it hurt, he couldn't compromise. Not here, not when he had compromised in every other way imaginable, conceded, given in…

"Last chance," his alpha threatened cruelly. "Obey, or watch as another takes your place. Watch as another takes her."

"I will watch, then," Second muttered, but he was not sure he _would_. He was better than Third, and that extended to _not_ having any part in this. To _not_ hurting the female Third had forcefully Sired, because he could claim to have done better that way.

But was it better if his refusal led to her being hurt anyway? He would not do it, but his alpha would have another do it, and he would have to watch because it would be part of his punishment, and she was already broken, just like him…

His thoughts were speeding up, barreling down paths they had not taken since before he became an adult, since long sleepless nights in the cold, alone or with a brother he could not trust. Thoughts he had then dismissed, lacking any reason to end his own life by folly of true resistance. Lacking any way to make it work.

His alpha was demanding, threatening, and now _giving up_. He was not winning, he was changing his plans and conceding, however he meant it to seem. This was a punishment, but it was also a victory, as alien as that concept was.

And with the possibility of victory came the possibility of rebellion. He had the means, he had _always_ had the means, ever since his alpha had thought him truly loyal, but he was not, not if he disobeyed in any way, and if loyalty did not make him better than his brother now then why did he try?

Second was aware that his thoughts were muddled and possibly foolish, or stupid, or inconsistent; he had not been struck on the head in this particular beating, but hunger, thirst, and everything else was not leaving him with a clear mind, either. He didn't care; this felt like a revelation, and he had not felt _right_ in a long time, only loyal. This felt right.

Storm was broken; he was too late. His alpha was even now describing the future he had thrown away, giving him yet another last chance to prove his loyalty.

His alpha was a danger to her, a threat. His alpha was planning to make her like him.

Nobody should have to be like him. His life was not worth living. He saw that now, thoughts of loyalty discarded now that he admitted that he was not, to deny his alpha anything.

He looked over at Storm, and then back up at his alpha, and decided. Death would come for him, but at least he would be done with it all, and maybe, just maybe, he could do something good for the female Third had made. Maybe she could recover without the destructive control of his alpha shaping her into a miserable shell of a person like him.

He stood, glared at Storm, shifted his body as if to approach her, and leaped upon his alpha, jabbing his worthless whip of a tail around to smack the bullhook from his hands.

Second expected to die or be defeated at any moment, but he fought to win, because he knew no other way to fight. He slashed at his alpha's throat, expecting to be blocked.

So, it was the shock of a lifetime to feel the parting of flesh beneath his claws and smell the blood as his strike dug far and deep through his alpha's vulnerable, vital flesh. He froze, his claws still in the one he had committed atrocities for, the one who had raised him, the one who had shaped him into the broken, empty creature he was now.

The last expression on his alpha's face was one that did not fit the moment at all. A smile of satisfaction. Light left the piercing eyes.

Then, to his utter disbelief, the body of his alpha dissolved into a pile of blacker than black ash. He fell forward, his paws slipping in the pile, and stumbled up, backing away and trying to wrap his mind around the mentally unhinging break in all that he knew. He had killed before; this _did not happen_. Right on the tail of him betraying almost everything he had ever known, it was just too much, his mind was already only limping along, addled by deprivation and belated epiphanies gone wrong.

"If you asked me what I thought was the _least_ likely outcome here, it would be that one," Storm said from behind him, her voice clear and awed but nonetheless falling on deaf ears. A small, distant portion of his mind slowly worked through what she had said and wholeheartedly agreed, this _was_ the least likely thing because it was literally unthinkable, and he wasn't sure whether he meant the ash, him attacking his alpha, or him killing his alpha. But most of him was just staring down at the pile of ash and not comprehending.

"And yet it was the one I hoped for," a male voice he didn't recognize volunteered from somewhere in front of him. He didn't care who was talking; they would not be able to put his mind at ease, nothing could after what had just happened, and that was all that mattered.

"So… I do _not_ get to kill him?" Storm asked petulantly. "You did not tell me what would mean he had passed your test, but I feel like this would be it if anything was."

Second twitched at the mention of someone killing him, but he still couldn't look up. Did the ash _mean_ something? Surely it was not just random; this didn't happen. Had his alpha done something to cause this? Was there some sort of disease or influence or… He didn't know what to think.

"He seems broken," an innocent female voice observed from the corridor. "Ember, is he… safe?"

"No, probably not," the male admitted. A paw pressed down into the ash in front of Second's face, orange and scarred. "You killed him."

"This is not right," Second objected feebly, unable to concentrate on anything else. "I do not understand."

"The ash, or his death?" was the unbelievably gentle reply.

"Both."

"You killed him. It was your action. You understand that?"

"Yes."

"And that was _him_ taunting and threatening you."

"Yes."

"But he was already dead. I killed him and took his body. When I die, this is what happens." The gentle voice was speaking nonsense now, but it was so calm and collected that he didn't object, his eyes fixed on the ash and the paw in the middle of it.

"You killed him, though," the voice continued. "You did not know it was me, so you killed him in your heart."

"I did." The meaning of the impossible words was beginning to occur to him. Not that someone else had somehow killed his alpha; that needed to be dealt with separately.

No, the fact that his alpha was dead was sinking in. No more beatings, no more control, no more obeying… anyone. Freedom. He would have to be like Third, a wanderer, alone…

No! He whined to himself, making a sound he had not made since childhood in his mental agony. He could not be like Third! Not like that! He couldn't.

And there was a solution. It was talking to him in careful tones, trying to make sure he understood what he had done. It was claiming it had killed his alpha too, and prior to him. It was saying that Storm was with it, that she was not hurt or broken like she had seemed, that this was all an act to see whether there was good in him.

He didn't care about most of that. The important parts were that Storm did not hate this person, and that this person had killed his alpha.

"I…" he rasped. "Your name. What is it?"

"Ember." The male dark wing who had taken half of his tailfins instead of killing him, and had called it a mercy, the one who was also a No-scaled-not-prey sometimes, the one who had freed Storm and the light wing, looked down at him as he looked up. "Why?"

"Alpha," Second rasped, knowing it was the only choice he could make that would ensure he did not become like Third.

"I killed him, yes," Ember said doubtfully.

Second lifted his head just enough to nudge at Ember's paw, and when it didn't move, let his face rest in the black ash in front of it. "You are my alpha."

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl hadn't watched most of the 'test', at Ember's request. He had told her that he needed to act as Drago would to draw out Second's true nature, and that it would be terrible, and she had agreed that she didn't want to see or hear it. She knew she was better off not knowing, not seeing.

But she hadn't been able to help herself, so once the sounds of pain had faded away and it seemed to be mostly talking, she had crept close enough to hear more clearly. She was insanely curious as to what Ember thought might happen, and the knowledge that Storm was totally safe and ready to bolt the moment Second made a real move on her made it all just palatable enough for her to feel she wanted to witness how it ended, if not how Ember brought it realistically to a breaking point, a point where Second would have to decide something permanent.

So she had seen the look on Second's face as he killed his alpha, and the shattered numbness that followed, and then the brief agony before the decision _nobody_ had been expecting.

And she knew that Storm wasn't going to like it. Storm being Storm, she also suspected letting Storm voice her dislike where Second could hear her might cause problems.

So, as Ember stared down at the distraught dark wing in surprise, as Storm opened her mouth, her eyes narrow slits and her tail batting the ground in agitation, Pearl darted across the room, leaped _over_ Second, and bulled into Storm, knocking her to the ground.

"Don't say a word," she hissed frantically. "He might go crazy and attack somebody!" This was Second, a hardened killer; she didn't think she was overreacting to say that. If Storm used her usual cutting words on someone dangerous and already distraught, anything might happen.

Storm, for her part, stared up at her in shock, and opened her mouth again-

Pearl, though she was beginning to feel the heat of embarrassment, managed one further act of audacity and stuck a paw to Storm's mouth. "Not a word."

"I do not want to be like Drago," Ember said to Second, immediately stealing most of Pearl's attention from the mutinous female in front of her.

"I do not want to be like me," Second said in a low, broken voice. "Command me, alpha. I do not trust myself to do right. Stop me from doing any more harm. Kill me, if that is the only way, if you will not command me. My claws and teeth and fire are yours."

"I'm not going to kill you, and neither is anyone else here," Ember said slowly.

Pearl could _feel_ Storm's glare on the side of her face, but as long as the other female was not speaking, she didn't care. She was just here to keep Storm quiet and watch this totally unexpected development play itself out. This was between Second and Ember, however much Storm might think she deserved a say.

"Then command me."

"I don't want to."

"But you must."

"Do you really not trust yourself to live without control?" Ember asked softly. "You don't think you can do it?"

Second looked up at Ember, his eyes wide and vulnerable, a strange look on such a dragon. "No. I don't know how. And if I fail, it will not be me who suffers."

Pearl knew, in that moment, that Ember was going to accept. He couldn't _not_ after hearing that; she felt she knew him at least well enough to know that.

"For now, I will be your alpha, then," Ember sighed. "If you really want it that way, instead of just going off on your own."

"Yes, I do." Second crawled away from Ember and sprawled out across the floor of the small stone chamber, his eyes closing as if of their own accord. He was not sleeping, his breath far too ragged and quick for that, but Pearl had no idea what else he might be doing.

"Ground rules," Ember said a moment later, speaking quickly. "No killing, no _hurting_ , and no touching Pearl or Storm without their express permission. No threatening them, either. And unless I say otherwise, Pearl can order you to do things, and you will do them."

Pearl blinked in shock as Second nodded in assent. "Wait, what?" she said quietly. Why had Ember added that last part?

"Yeah, what?" Storm echoed, pushing Pearl away from her. "Why just Pearl?"

Ember silently motioned for them to leave Second's presence, and they did so, Pearl hurriedly and Storm impatiently.

"Pearl," Ember addressed her the moment they were out of hearing range of the collapsed Night Fury, "I trust you to treat him at least somewhat fairly. Storm, sorry, the same does not go for you. Since having him only listen to me is stupid and dangerous, I gave Pearl authority over him too. End of discussion."

"He does not _deserve_ to be treated fairly!" Storm burst out. "He deserves to die!"

"Yes, maybe, but that's not your call anymore," Ember growled. "We will not kill someone who has surrendered and basically begged for help changing his ways."

"Is that what he did?" Storm asked caustically. "It seemed to me like he murdered his alpha and then panicked."

"He did that," Pearl agreed. "And he did what Ember said too. But Ember, are we really going to take him with us?" She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Second was a brutal, horrible person, much like Claw in some ways, but he _had_ asked to be controlled, to be made safe. She didn't understand that mindset at all, but it seemed far less clear-cut than Storm was making it sound.

"I will keep him on until he asks to go on his own," Ember said firmly. "If that's a few days, then it's a few days. If it's all the way through this journey for vengeance, then so be it. He cannot cling to me as his alpha for too long."

The unspoken explanation for that rang in Pearl's ears. Ember did not expect to live long past the end of his revenge. He still wanted to die. Compared to that looming problem, Second tagging along was not an issue. In fact, now that she thought about it, maybe being responsible for Second could help convince Ember to keep going once this journey did reach its end. It was certainly a possibility.

"He will murder us all in our sleep," Storm growled.

"You may feel free to leave our group if you feel unsafe," Ember sighed. "I am not forcing you to stay."

"I want revenge," Storm said just a little too quickly, "so no." Pearl was pretty sure she was still afraid of setting out on her own again.

"So do I," Ember snarled, pawing at the ground. "So, we agree. We will go after Viggo next, and Second will travel with us."

"I want the authority to order him around," Storm demanded. "Just in case he tries anything funny."

"Pearl has it for that sort of thing, and you will not get it so long as you want him dead or gone," Ember said bluntly, looking his half-sister in the eye. "As he is now, I believe he would follow through on an order telling him to drown himself, or bite his own claws off, or any number of other terrible things. You will not hold that power over him. It would be too tempting."

"And it will not tempt Pearl?" Storm retorted.

"I don't want any of that!" Pearl barked, feeling sickened by the very idea. "He scares me a little, but he never did anything to me. I don't even know for sure if he ate…" She trailed off, closing her eyes and doing her best to banish that thought before it got to her. Second was coming along with them like it or not, and she did not want to see that in her mind every time she looked at him.

"He didn't," Ember replied, surprising her. "I saw Drago's memories, and he wasn't allowed to eat anything for the remainder of the trip, as part of his punishment for failing to bring you both back."

"Oh, well, that's good," Pearl said faintly. Somehow, that made her feel better and worse at the same time.

"Well, if I do not get to order him around, then I am not dealing with him at all," Storm huffed. "When are we leaving?"

"I need to get a splint on my wing," Ember said, looking over at his bad wing, "but after that we can set the ship out and start the trip."

"I guess we can't fly," Pearl agreed. Half of their group was grounded at the moment.

"This just keeps getting better," Storm groaned. "I'm going to go find somewhere safe to sleep. You two have fun dealing with the kin-eater." She stalked off in the direction of the exit Ember had shown them.

"So…" Ember gingerly waved his bad wing. "Could you help me with this?"

"Sure." There were things between them that still needed to be addressed, and soon, but she wasn't Storm. She wouldn't let small issues stop her from helping with what mattered. They could talk while she helped him.

O-O-O-O-O

"Now wrap it around," Ember instructed, his voice tired and pained. "Just pull it tight and hold it. Please?"

"I'm 'rying!" Pearl complained. She was not _regretting_ helping him, but this wasn't easy to do, and he only made it harder by forbidding claws or teeth, saying that ripping the cloth would just force them to start over. His sharp inhales of pain every time she so much as touched his wing wrong weren't helping either. They had been at this for what felt like far too long, as well, and she was extremely tired, but they couldn't be done until it was finished, or they'd have to start over.

"Yes, yes," Ember praised in a tight voice, watching her progress closely. "Now try and hold it there while the glue sets."

"Se's?" She wished she could talk clearly, but the tasteless fabric clamped between her gums made it hard.

"It will hold the stake to my wing and make sure it doesn't move," Ember clarified. "You're putting pressure on the whole thing to keep it tight while it dries. Usually we'd just wrap all around, but the wing is kind of hard to splint. You're doing good."

"How ge' i' off?" she managed, more to pass the time than out of genuine curiosity. Watching his No-scaled-not-prey form scrounge up random things and put them together had been fun, but this part was just arduous, and she wanted it over.

"Painfully, and probably with a few lost scales," Ember admitted. "But like I said, setting a wing bone is hard. I'll be content to just have my wing heal straight, even if it does hurt to remove."

"'Lame I'," she suggested.

Ember's eyes widened. "Well, yes, that would be far better," he admitted. "Good idea."

At this point, she was actually impressed he could make heads or tails of what she was saying, so she tried something out. "Ra' i' lim' 'im."

Sure enough, he tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "What? I didn't quite get that."

She rumbled in constrained laughter and didn't explain that she had just been making random noises; his reaction was funny enough as it was.

"Okay, you can let go now," he announced a short while later. "It should be good."

Pearl dropped the fabric like it was tasteless, soggy, and entirely inedible, which it was, and eyed the piece of wood stuck to Ember's wing. It _was_ holding his break straight, but it looked incredibly unnatural, and a little uncomfortable.

"First try on that, at least," he sighed, gingerly folding his wing in. "Now, I think I'm going to sleep as a No-scaled-not-prey, that way I can be rested in that form for getting the ship moving."

"Don't sleep somewhere Second can reach," Pearl warned. "I don't know if he considers the No-scaled-not-prey version of you as his alpha or not." She didn't like the idea of Second coming across him asleep at all, but as a helpless little No-scaled-not-prey would be far worse.

"But I cannot get anywhere he cannot reach," Ember said thoughtfully, looking down at the floor as if seeing something other than bare stone. "Anywhere I can go like this, he can go too, and there is not actually anywhere on this mountain a No-scaled-not-prey can get to that he cannot."

"The upward passages are too small, sleep in one of those," Pearl proposed.

"That might work." Ember looked up with a small, tired grin. "He has his own ways between floors, and those ways do not lead to the middle of a passage. Good thinking."

"Thanks," Pearl purred.

"And while we are on the subject, good thinking with shutting Storm up," Ember added after a moment, breaking the sudden silence. "It was needed."

"It was nothing," Pearl murmured, feeling uncomfortable. Her Dam would never approve, so she should be proud, but it still felt way too forward of her to race across the room and silence the female she wanted to learn independence and right-thinking from. She was not that assertive, not yet. "I was just trying to not get killed."

"She might have been able to drive him to hate himself and flee, but I do not think she could make him attack us," Ember said slowly. "So you still did well even if that would not have happened."

She nodded in agreement. It was good to hear that, and Ember would know better than anyone what Second might do now. He had gotten enough from the bad alpha's memories to know that Second might turn on him at all.

Ember carefully folded his wing in and out a few times, testing the strength of the splint, and then set off, leaving the open chamber they had been working in. "See you tomorrow," he offered. "I cannot fish, and neither can Second, and Storm will not want to help, so…"

"I'll fish for both of you," Pearl readily agreed. She wasn't about to complain about such a small, vital task. It would be easy enough, she'd just have to find them from wherever she was going to sleep…

She whined as that line of thought continued, and closed her eyes in an effort to think. She had terrible nightmares every time she slipped into sleep in the cell, and that might not stop, and she didn't know where Storm had gone, and Second was lurking in the mountain. She couldn't go back to her cell, but there was nowhere else.

"Pearl?" Ember called back.

"I have nowhere to sleep," she admitted. "And I don't feel safe here, alone."

"You can sleep at the foot of the stairwell," Ember offered. "I'll be within hearing distance if something happens."

She followed him, liking that idea more than the prospect of searching for Storm or finding some isolated corner and hoping nothing bad would happen. She would be glad to get away from this mountain; there was nothing here but empty corridors and fear, at least for her.

O-O-O-O-O

When Pearl woke the next morning, she found herself wedged halfway up the bottom of the narrow, curving stairwell, her rear and tail backed up the tiny stone ledges and her front half awkwardly resting on the bottom level of stone.

She knew why she was like that, though it was a humiliating, unhappy reason. Nightmares had gotten the better of her, and her half-asleep solution had been to try and get to Ember's narrow place of safety, going back end first because she could not bear to take her eyes off the long, dark corridor in front of her. Now, in the light of day-

The light? She craned her neck to look down the corridor and saw a faint ray of sunshine falling onto stone a few paces out, coming from an opening in the stone wall. There was a room beyond that opening, but she hadn't known that room had a hole in it leading outside.

All the better for that; she didn't know how she would have realized it was day if it were not for that faint but cheerful light.

She shimmied forward, eager to be rid of the cramps in her side and the small headache throbbing away in the front of her forehead, and dislodged herself, shaking vigorously the moment she was clear of the narrow spiral passage. Why had the No-scaled-not-prey made this place with _almost_ all passages big enough, but not those? Maybe there was a good reason, but she didn't see it. They should have made the _whole_ place that narrow and confining if they wanted to keep dragons out.

"Is alpha around?"

She let out an undignified squawk and jumped, the rough, strained voice far too close for comfort, especially as its owner had figured prominently in her nightmares. "Where are you?" she called out, her head turning so fast she felt her neck twinge in protest. He wasn't in the room, he wasn't in sight, so _where_?

"Up here."

Pearl looked up and saw the stone ceiling. "Up _where_?" she stressed.

"To the side, there's a little line in the stone."

"Oh." She locked eyes on the single slitted pupil and iris visible in what she would have assumed was just a small imperfection of stone had she even noticed it before. "How did you get in there?"

"It's a passage for invasions," Second explained gravely. "The idea is to pour boiling oil along here from the next floor. But there is no oil, and I can fit."

"Okay…" She would have stopped there, because talking to him so neutrally made her extremely nervous, but Ember _had_ trusted her to handle him. "Can you come out?"

"Not easily."

"Then why are you in there?" She had to ask.

"It is the only way for us to go between floors," he explained. His tone was almost mockingly respectful. In fact, had she not seen him bow to his human alpha just as fervently, she would have assumed he was mocking her. "As you discovered, there is no squeezing through the stairs."

"How did you know that?" she demanded angrily, feeling the familiar, sickly heat of humiliation working its way through her body.

"I saw you there," he said simply, betraying no emotion. "Where is alpha? I have searched the mountain and not found him. I have been looking all night."

Pearl didn't doubt that; she could hear the dry rasp in his voice, the deep exhaustion. If he had stopped receiving food or water at the same time as her and Storm, he would not have eaten or drank _anything_ in more than a day, now.

"Well, come out," she commanded awkwardly, ignoring his question about Ember. "I think there is good water in the big open bay with the ships, and I will be bringing you fish soon. Wait there, please."

"As alpha's female commands," Second said respectfully, his eye receding.

"Wait!" Pearl barked.

He came back to the crack in the stone.

"I'm not his female, I'm just… a friend," she finished lamely.

"Yes, alpha's friend," Second corrected himself.

"Just Pearl," she requested hopefully. "Right? Pearl."

"Yes, Pearl."

"And you can stop saying that, just an 'okay' or 'got it' would suffice," she pushed. If she was going to be interacting with him, the least he could do was not creep her out.

"… Okay." Was she imagining just the hint of annoyance in his voice? It certainly was not obvious.

She shrugged it off, gesturing with her tail. "Well, get going. You must be dying of thirst."

The large eye receded, and she heard claws scraping on stone as Second made his way through the passages she hadn't even known about. That was probably for the best; her nightmares would just have included that creepy detail if she had known.

"Pearl?" Ember's No-scaled-not-prey voice called down from the stairway.

"Right here," she barked. "Everything is fine. I'm going to go fishing now." Maybe flying out in the open air would help her shake off the lingering unease. She had not had a pleasant night, but the morning could be better.

And the evening, when she could turn her back on this heap of stone for good, would be better still.

O-O-O-O-O

She spent most of the day flying and avoiding Storm. She would have done more if Ember had asked, but he had told her to enjoy herself while he got the No-scaled-not-prey ship ready and set sail with Second; apparently, what little one such as herself could do, Second would be handling.

That was why she was avoiding Storm; after seeing Second bow to Ember's No-scaled-not-prey form just as vehemently when she returned with fish for both of them, she trusted Ember would be safe from Second. Storm, to put it mildly, did not feel so confident about that.

"Ten!" Pearl barked out, swerving to the side to avoid Storm. "No, for the tenth time!"

"You want his attention and you want him alive, and yet you leave him alone with Second!" Storm roared as she dove past. "Getting hit on the head addled your mind!"

Pearl grumbled to herself and flapped hard to get away from Storm. Apparently, Storm's resolution to have nothing to do with Second precluded her going down and hanging around for Ember's sake, but she had no problem periodically bothering Pearl over the same issue, and taking all she knew to try and elicit a response.

But the sky _was_ nice and empty and blue and free, and Pearl couldn't bring herself to leave it to avoid Storm. Camouflaging would work, but that brought its own issues, mainly that she didn't feel as free when she was hiding from sight. So, she dodged and ignored instead, and savored the quiet times in between attempts, listening to the endless waves as she flew aimlessly around the mountain.

It was good out here, and peaceful, but she would be glad to get away. So, when the sun finally began to turn orange and slide below the horizon, she made her way to the wooden craft bobbing merrily along the waves.

It was a small thing, with only one stick of wood in the middle and nowhere to go below the top layer of cut wood, the small space below filled with things she did not understand or recognize.

When she landed, Ember was resting near the front of the craft, his orange limbs tucked neatly beneath him as he stared at nothing in particular. Second was pacing the length of the ship, walking stiffly, his whiplike tail swaying in time with the craft's gentle rocking.

"Welcome aboard," Ember said casually, looking over at her for a moment before resuming his aimless staring into the distance. "There's good water in the barrels over in the back, and plenty more in the hold. You _can_ sleep down there if you want, but it'll be cramped. Try not to cut any of the ropes around here, and don't set things on fire."

"Enough water for the whole trip?" Pearl asked. She did not need _much_ water, none of them did, but if they ran out things would get difficult. Salt water was drinkable but not enjoyable, and apparently bad for one's body. She'd never needed to live off of it yet herself, so she wouldn't know first-paw.

"Enough for all four of us for a very, very long time," Ember confirmed. "Don't worry about it."

"I won't. Do you want any fish now?" she asked. Ember hadn't eaten since morning, after all.

"A few would be nice," Ember admitted. "Second?"

"I need nothing, alpha."

"Okay, let me phrase it differently," Ember said calmly. "Are you at all hungry?"

"Not to the point of it affecting me."

Ember shook his head, fixing his eyes on the other dragon. "Are you hungry, yes or no." There was just the slightest hint of a commanding tone underlying that request for information. Pearl glanced back over her shoulder to see Second staring at Ember with an uncertain expression.

"Yes," Second finally admitted.

"So, if you would, Pearl," Ember concluded, nodding at her. "I am sorry it has to be you every time, but Storm…"

"I get it," she assured him, leaping up once more. As far as she was concerned, Second was already pulling his weight simply by keeping Ember alert and focused on something. He hadn't gone all quiet and distant yet, not like he had been before they attacked the mountain.

Besides, being the one to provide for them made her feel like _she_ was pulling her weight, too. It made her feel useful and needed.

The sun had totally set by the time she had enough large fish in her mouth and paws to bother returning with. Storm flew up beside her on the way back.

"That had better not be for Second," she griped.

Pearl ignored her. Storm had no right to say what Second ate, or if Second ate. Really, she had no right to hate Second, given he'd not done anything to her, but she seemed to have an issue with holding anger and grudges. That was one thing Pearl did not intend to copy; Ember didn't do it, and he was a good person, so it was not necessary.

"Will you go flying out with me after you drop that off?" Storm asked a moment later. "We can find somewhere safe to sleep, a sea stack or an empty island."

Pearl realized that Storm expected an answer, so she tilted her head and cast the other female an annoyed glance. Did Storm think the fish in her mouth would just disappear to allow her to easily speak?

"At least you got this thing moving," Storm announced as they dropped onto the ship, throwing a snarl Second's way as she prowled to the spot furthest from him.

"Here," Pearl said quietly, setting all the fish she had gathered into one big pile for Ember and Second to split as they chose, though that probably meant that Ember would end up dividing them. "Is this enough?"

"Yes, it is, thank you," Ember said politely.

"Thank you," Second echoed tonelessly a moment later.

Pearl looked from Second to Ember, who met her gaze with a small purr. She had to hold in a similar reaction herself; it was just so _odd_ , hearing the scarred and brutal dragon thanking her, and just because Ember had undoubtedly told him to while she was gone didn't make it any less strange to hear.

Storm snorted cynically, looking as if she was ready to fly away again. "Pearl, are you coming?"

"To search out some random place to sleep when there is a good place right here?" Pearl asked doubtfully. "No, I'd rather not. See you tomorrow."

"I was always the only one with any sense of us three," Storm complained, leaping up into the air.

Ember watched her fly away with a faintly amused look. "Does she think I am choosing to not follow?" he asked nobody in particular. "For all she knows, I would if I could."

"You could ride her in your No-scaled-not-prey form," Pearl suggested, looking around to try and decide where she wanted to curl up for the night. It was not particularly cold at the moment, but it might get colder as the night wore on, and she didn't know if Second or Ember had already staked claims to any particular bit of deck.

"Okay, yes, I suppose I _am_ choosing to stay here, then," Ember admitted. "We should not all sleep, though. I will take the first shift. Second, you can take the other."

"Are there only two?" Pearl asked. "I can take one, so there can be three."

"You are providing food and can fly all day," Ember retorted, walking over to the fish pile and pawing through it, dividing it into two equal, smaller piles even as he spoke. "Even if you could do that and watch, it would leave you more tired in the day, while Second and I will not have much to do but laze around here."

"Alpha, I do not need as much as you," Second objected, watching from the other side of the ship.

"I don't believe that," Ember growled lightly. "We are about the same size and build, and I know how long you went without food prior to this, and I know what you ate this morning. Whatever you are used to does not matter. You'll eat as much as I do until you are used to that, because that is normal."

That seemed to satisfy Second for some reason, possibly because it was a direct order. He and Ember set about to eating, and Pearl paced the deck, looking for a spot that particularly appealed to her.

She eventually found one, a spot of wood that had been smoothed, right near the base of the upright log sticking through the center of the craft. She experimented with curling around the log, but that made her feel strangely exposed, so she settled for lying on her side next to it and looking up at the stars, not quite yet tired enough to go to sleep.

The rocking of the waves lulled her to sleep far sooner than she expected.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl woke with a fearful cry stuck in her throat and a pounding heart, and though she could not remember her nightmare she knew she had suffered one. Her body trembled, and the light breeze across her scales felt as cold as an icy wind. She felt desperately alone and vulnerable in that moment.

A pair of deep orange eyes slowly opened, staring at her from the far end of the ship. Second blinked twice, slowly and steadily, and made no move to get up.

Pearl shuddered under his gaze and rose, wanting to be out of his sight. Well, no, what she really wanted was to go to Ember and huddle up next to him, but she couldn't…

Why couldn't she? Because Second was watching? This was not related to her trying to catch Ember's attention; she had not yet really continued to do that. This was just her wanting to touch someone and reassure herself that she was not alone. Second's eyes did not do that, and Storm was not available to go to, so it would be Ember.

But she did not want to wake him, or make things awkward. She hesitated, stepping toward where he was lying sprawled out on deck, his wings twitching at every shift in the breeze, but not committing.

"Alpha," Second barked loudly.

Ember's eyes shot open at the noise, though it took them a few long seconds to focus on anything. He looked at Pearl, and then Second. "What is it? What is going on?"

"The female was considering approaching you," Second said coldly. "She seemed conflicted."

Pearl let out a little noise of frustration and whirled on the other dragon, forgetting just how intimidating he was in her irritation. "I was _conflicted_ because I did not think it was worth _waking_ him!"

"For what?" Ember asked carefully.

"Nightmares," Second revealed tactlessly. Pearl made another, louder sound of frustration somewhere between a snarl and a whine.

"Okay," Ember sighed, flicking his tail around aimlessly, "Second, thank you for your concern. You can go to sleep now, I'll start my watch."

"Yes, alpha," Second intoned, and curled around so that his back was to them.

"I was not going to… But _he_ butted in…" She felt so stupid and childish, having her issues divulged by someone who could not have sounded any less sympathetic or understanding if they had tried.

"I know, but you can't exactly expect tact from him," Ember sighed. "There's no way to order him to be considerate, either. That would require some kind of judgment on his part, and he refuses to decide anything for himself right now."

Pearl took Ember continuing to talk to her as an invitation, and came over to sit beside him. Not touching, not right now. She didn't need to, the fear was rapidly fading just from listening to him talk about other matters. She settled down a few paw-lengths away, wary of making him uneasy the way she had in the past. Right now, that sort of interaction was the last thing she wanted.

"So…" Ember looked over at her. "Nightmares?"

She nodded sadly.

He crooned in sympathy. "From being in the cell?"

"Not just that," she admitted, though she could not honestly have said what form her dreams had taken, as she couldn't remember. Ember didn't know of her past, and she wasn't about to overturn that rock anytime soon, not without a very good reason, but she didn't need to elaborate to reassure him that this wasn't his fault, at least not totally.

"But partially that," he murmured. "I'm so, so sorry."

"I understand it had to happen," she rumbled. She didn't get exactly why, but now that she knew for sure this was really him, she _knew_ he had a very, very good reason. He sounded so sorry, and yet he'd never even come to see her and explain. It all pointed to there being an actual point to her suffering, which made her feel much less betrayed. Even then, at least the one she trusted was trying to protect her from something worse. That was still an improvement over what she had in the valley.

"Do you want me to tell you about it?" he asked quietly. "I feel like I need to. You should understand exactly why I did it."

"I would like that," she admitted. "I believe you that it was necessary, but I would still like to know." Maybe it would help her take her mind off the lingering unease.

Ember glanced over at Second, checking to be sure he wasn't obviously listening, and then began to speak, to go over everything he had found out and why he had done what he had. He went into how the 'new Second' had been found, and how the bad alpha had raised it, and what the bad alpha had known it could do. He told her about how he had frantically thought up the only possible way to bluff and deceive an end to the danger.

It took time; the moon went from the height of the sky to substantially lower as he talked. She listened silently, only occasionally asking a question when he accidentally left out details that were needed to make sense of the rest, usually by skimming over the bad alpha's memories as quickly as possible.

It was not an enjoyable talk, but she could _feel_ the lingering unease between them soothed as he spoke, at least on her part. As it went, the familiar awkwardness she had somehow put on hold returned, but that was still better.

At the end, when he finally reached the moment where he sent the new Second to challenge the older, more experienced ice nest alpha, she purred loudly.

"You think that was a good idea?" he asked. "I worry that he might actually succeed, somehow."

"No way," she said firmly. That dragon could handle anything short of another exactly like him, and the new Second by Ember's account was not even close, despite being the same kind of dragon. Maybe with a few season-cycles to reach his full size and gain experience, but even then it did not feel likely. "It was a good answer."

"He will probably die there, though," Ember admitted. "He was no worse than Second, probably less terrible simply because he had less time to be terrible, and I sent him to his death."

"You did what you had to."

For some reason, that seemed to reassure Ember immensely. He looked over at her with a grateful purr. "Really?"

"Yes. Did you not think so yourself?"

"I did, but hearing it from you…" He shrugged his wing shoulders and winced, likely at the pain doing so brought about. "You are innocent, or at least more so than me. Hearing it from you helps."

"I am not that innocent," she objected. Really, in any sense of the word she was not, through no fault of her own.

"Compared to me, or Second, or Storm, you are," he sighed, resting his head on the ground. "You do not _have_ to travel with us. Once my wing heals, we could take a detour to somewhere safe, and you could go there. Or you could go home, wherever that is for you."

"Tell me about this safe place," she requested, though she had absolutely no intention of going anywhere. It would be easier to say no if she heard him out first, and maybe, just maybe, she could convince him to _stay_ with her in that safe place. That would be much better than risking his life in revenge, and she could work on helping him move on…

"Berk," he said quietly, his voice even lower than before. "I left, and they will not want me back because of how I left, but they would happily take you in, and Astrid is fair. There are good people there. You would be safe and happy."

"The island of No-scaled-not-prey and our kind living together?" She had not even considered going there, and the idea didn't really appeal to her now. Visiting, sure, but not settling down there. From what he had previously said, there would be nobody like herself, and that sounded like a lonely life. Surrounded by happy people, and yet alone. Not to mention her unfinished business here, and with Storm, and with him.

"Yes. It would be much better than staying with us."

"Not in my opinion," she replied honestly. "I want to see this through, not fly to safety and never hear from you again."

"You'll never hear from me again soon either way," he whispered so quietly she didn't think he meant her to hear it. "Just this, and I will be done."

The certainty in his voice made her shiver, and she didn't say anything for a while, letting him think she was considering it, though her decision had never wavered for an instant. _That_ was why she was not leaving. She thought she liked him, and she wanted to see _that_ gone from him. She couldn't do that anywhere else.

"No," she said firmly. "I am sticking with you. With this quest."

"If that is your will, then I will not argue," he conceded, closing his eyes. "It will be a long, slow, boring journey, and then I do not know what we will find. I sent Drago's fleet to assault Viggo's holdings, and they will have failed, but I do not know how badly, or what state it will all be in."

"Surely it does not matter?" she asked, hoping to draw the conversation away from her choice lest he try and convince her despite saying he wouldn't. "We just have to sneak in and do the same thing we did with the other."

"No, we cannot. I cannot." He shook his head. "Viggo will have more protection, for one thing, and I have destroyed one of the two big powers in this part of the world. I cannot leave the other unopposed. Drago was the reason Viggo played it safe, and vice versa. I must destroy his empire as thoroughly as I did Drago."

Pearl held in a highly inappropriate laugh of glee; she didn't like the talk of destruction and probably a lot of death, but surely the endeavor of ending a massive organization of No-scaled-not-prey would take far longer than killing a single one. She would take all the extra time she could get to work on Ember.

Their ship drifted onward in the soft, chilly breeze of the night, lit by the moon and stars. Onward, in the rough direction of the enemy, leaving the mountain fortress behind, deserted and empty. The rest of the world seemed very far away to Pearl that night, and she did not very much mind the feeling. That night, it was just her, Ember, and Second, and Second didn't really count.

When she drifted back to sleep in the early light of dawn, her mind was at ease, and she felt better than she had in days. There was time, and a purpose, and a returning affection she felt for the hurt, strong, considerate dragon beside her. There was worry, too, and ingrained awkwardness, but that too felt far away for just a little while.

_**Author's Note:** _ **And so our party of adventurers expands to four. Second might not deserve another chance (or maybe he does, it's really not a simple issue to pass judgment on), but Ember isn't in the frame of mind to refuse him one, even if it is as strange as this. Also, whichever of my reviewers on the original story theorized that Ember might kill Drago and thus end up having Second's loyalty, look, it happens here! Kind of.**

**As a more technical note, wow, it was hard to get myself back up to speed on Pearl, Storm, Ember, and Second. I've been working on** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **for so long that I've gotten used to thinking of them as their character-arc-complete selves simply because** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **is over. Going back and jumping into their heads mid-arc was and is difficult. Ember, in particular, is hard. If he seems more energized, well, I've explained that as the time he spent impersonating Drago basically forcing him to act more normal, and it not having worn off yet. Besides, this quest was supposed to get him to live a little, even if in anger, right? We just didn't get to see that in canon thanks to that whole thing being rendered moot almost immediately. But there** _**may** _ **be some authorial adjustment going on as I write him again for the first time in a long time, so it's good that I have those in-story excuses.**


	10. All That Remains - Interval (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The fourth entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer.**

* * *

As the days passed, life settled into something approaching normal, or at least a routine. Pearl fished and flew near the ship in the day, exercising and reveling in her freedom, and slept on deck at night. Her nightmares became sparser, though they did not go away entirely.

Second roamed the deck of the ship, slept irregularly, and obeyed his alpha. He did not really relax, even as the days turned to weeks, and the tiny sprouts of tailfin growing promised flight, but would not deliver for some time yet, still barely visible.

Ember busied himself tending to the ship, resting and recovering as his Night Fury self, and talking to Second and Pearl. Conversations with Second were stilted and awkward, but he made a point of having them regularly, even when there was nothing new to discuss.

Storm checked in occasionally, but spent most of her days and almost all of her nights away, seeking shelter wherever she could find it. Those few nights she could not find anywhere she deemed safer than risking a night asleep within reach of Second, she slept in the hold of the ship with Ember resting on the only hatch up.

There was no bad weather; storm fronts passed overhead, and the wind remained bitingly cold, but it all seemed to be heading elsewhere, like themselves, and did not trouble them or their ship. There were no ships around, no signs of intelligent life at all, at least within the view of the ship and the air around it. Storm reported the occasional sighting of life, dragon or human, in the distance, but did not approach either kind.

In short, nothing major changed aside from their position in the world, and that steadily enough. For a time, at least.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm landed on the ship in a bad mood. That was a given; she was in a bad mood _because_ she was landing on the ship. She didn't want to be anywhere near one of its occupants, but thanks to mopey Ember and lovestruck Pearl, she had no choice sometimes.

The instant her paws touched rough wood, she made for Ember, who was coiling a brown vine about himself, in No-scaled-not-prey form. Pearl was flying, and Second-

She could feel Second's eyes on her back, and she shuddered, refusing to turn and meet his seemingly neutral gaze. She had liked him better as a mortal enemy.

Ember, looking up and seeing her, shifted into a blaze of blue fire and then orange scale to meet her in a form she could understand. "What's up?" he asked, getting right down to it because he knew she wouldn't tolerate being near Second any longer than she had to.

"There is a stormfront coming this way," she said brusquely, flicking her head at the seemingly innocent white clouds in the distance. "I was flying out near it. Do whatever it is No-scaled-not-prey do to not die in this kind of thing."

"Is it that bad?" Ember asked.

"No, I just came down here because I _love_ sitting around with you and him," she snarled. "Do not die in it. That is all I ask. Maybe, if you feel generous, throw Second off the side."

"I would not like that," a gravelly voice objected.

Storm whirled on Second, confused and incensed by his response. The only _good_ thing about having him around was that he didn't say much and didn't obviously try to get on her nerves. She was going to nip this new and highly unwelcome development in the bud right now. "I do not give a rotten fish skull for what you want!"

Second shrugged his wing shoulders, his eyes blank and dull, just like always. "I am mildly bothered by your lack of respect for alpha."

"Storm," Ember interrupted, stepping on her tail to get her attention, "I have asked Second to say what he thinks about everything today. He's not trying to mess with you."

She whirled on Ember and yanked her tail out from under his paw, no less angry for having an explanation. "So?"

"I think I already said why you should care," Ember huffed. "I want him to start talking and asking for things and giving opinions, and you are not helping."

Oh, so this was just another part of Ember's stupidly impossible project of reforming Second. As if she cared. "Well, you can just order him to not talk to me, then."

"I find your spite familiar," Second said woodenly from behind her. Her eyes narrowed.

"Familiar?" she bit out, whirling on him just as she had whirled on Ember, ignoring the latter's low growl of annoyance.

"Familiar," Second confirmed, not moving from his spot near the other end of the small wooden craft. "I am used to baseless spite."

"It is not _baseless_ ," she hissed. Who did he think he was, to criticize her? Only one of them had served that no-good excuse for an alpha, and it hadn't been her. If she had her way, he wouldn't be here now.

"I have done nothing but spare you." Again, said in that irritatingly toneless, dead voice. He sounded like what he was, a predator pretending to be tame.

"Ember, make him shut up," she growled. "I have better things to do than argue with him. Like flying over empty ocean and relieving myself, for instance."

"And if I don't?" Ember snarled from behind her. "It doesn't work that way, Storm. You don't get to tell me to tell him to be silent for the same reason you don't have the authority to order him around yourself."

She was getting annoyed with whirling back and forth, so she quickly stalked over to a place where she could see the both of them, one on either side of the ship.

"I am noticing that you did not answer me," Second intoned.

Could she see the faintest hint of malicious enjoyment in his eyes? She believed so. "You served a no-good rotten No-scaled-not-prey! You killed for it, you ate dragons for it, you forced yourself upon females for it! That is enough reason for me to hate you!"

"I did, and that is enough reason for impersonal hate," Second retorted, showing a hint of emotion, if only anger. " _Personal_ hate is one of the very few things I do _not_ deserve. Not from you."

"Oh, look, you _do_ still have a spine," Storm simpered mockingly. "I thought you tore that out and gave it to Ember a while back. Is he letting you borrow it today?"

"Apparently," Second retorted, looking to Ember.

"Arguing with Storm is practically an inevitability no matter who you are," Ember said loudly. "Go ahead."

Second nodded as if taking that as an order, and turned back to Storm. "You have no reason to hate me so avidly."

"You are who you are, and that is more than enough reason." She couldn't stand him, and he was a mindless monster lurking in wait, and he was just like his brother. The only thing that kept her from saying that was raw self-preservation; she knew, down to the depths of her bones, that comparing him to his brother was a way to die, regardless of his pretense of obeying Ember. That lack of freedom to speak her mind just further enraged her.

"So, it is just general hatred with a personal leaning?" He pointedly looked her over. "I see you got more from our side of the family than looks."

She recoiled, hurt in spite of her anger. She might fear provoking him with familial ties, but he had no such reluctance when it came to her. Surely he was just striking at her with that; he didn't mean anything more than she did with any of her angry verbal blows.

"That was low," Ember rumbled warningly.

"It was just an observation. That stubborn holding onto things is very familiar, and it is clear where it comes from."

"Clear!" Storm didn't even know what she was saying now, but she had to say something because the alternative would end in blood and pain and probably her death. "Yes, clear. Tell me, who finally killed the abusive, horrible alpha that had controlled him his entire life and then stubbornly latched onto the next strong male to show up not a moment later?" Her claws ground curling shreds of wood from the plank under her, and she was going to have a bruise on the underside of her tail from thumping it on the wood in pure anger.

"Who resented her Sire for season-cycles after he apologized?" Second shot back.

"That was _different_!" she exclaimed, somehow on the defensive despite being in the right. It hurt to be reminded of that, she _knew_ it had been wrong and it was too late, he shouldn't be bringing it up-

"No, it really was not," he said neutrally. "It is the same problem."

"Shut up," she groaned, fighting to hold on to her anger. It wasn't fair, bringing up that mistake, thinking about it just made her feel sad and guilty, and she couldn't fight back properly if she couldn't be angry.

"I do think you may have gone too far," Ember said sternly. "It's not right to hurt her with that."

"Yes, alpha," Second conceded. "I was just explaining what I meant. Thoroughly."

"Storm?" Ember called out in a low voice. "You okay?"

"No," she whined, flinging her wings down and managing a strong takeoff despite the claws buried in the wood beneath her; shreds of wood clung to her paws for a few moments before being pulled away in the wind.

She felt like Second had pounced and opened a bloody wound in her mind, one that just would not stop getting bigger even now that she was away, the air streaming around her the only thing she could hear.

Herb had emphasized, over and over again as she grew up, that ultimately people chose who they were to be. It might be easier or harder to choose correctly depending on how one was, but it was still a choice.

And she had chosen wrong. She'd never get to go back and say sorry, or forgive him, or even see his face again. Not her Dam either, and that hurt too, but at least there were no open wounds between them. Between her and Herb, there definitely had been and always would be. She couldn't fix that.

Third was to blame, but he was dead. Ember was to blame, but he was hating himself and punishing himself far more thoroughly than she could ever manage. Second was to blame, but he was not, not really. He had done nothing to her, and she knew it. He was just an easy person to hate, one who really didn't deserve kindness or consideration, one who she could despise without guilt.

No, the only one she really had left to hate was herself. Ember was going to die, Third was dead, Second was ironically innocent. Herb was not innocent of lying to her, but he had done it for her sake. She was the only guilty one left that she could hate.

Second had ripped away her denial, her ability to hate him instead, in comparing her to Third and saying that she had their cursed family's traits. If she hated him for being like Third, then she had to hate herself for the same thing.

Storm flew aimlessly, dejected and downcast. She found shelter, some desolate chunk of rock sticking up from the sea. She slipped into a crack in said rock, barely fitting, and weathered the storm that came through. The sea slamming into her refuge as cold rivulets of water ran over her and kept her awake all night, not that she could sleep. She had never been more miserable in both mind and body.

O-O-O-O-O

"What do you mean, she whined and flew away?" Pearl asked worriedly. "She came to tell you about a big storm and then _didn't_ stay to shelter here? But she also didn't leave word for me about a better place to weather it?" That last part was not as selfish as it sounded, and they both knew it. Storm always left offers open to Pearl to _not_ sleep on the ship if there was anything around; that she had not this time either meant she forgot, totally possible…

Or it meant that she had no shelter, meaning she was flying in the midst of the oncoming squall that Ember and Second were even now doing various things to prepare for.

"I know, it sounds really bad," Ember called out, his No-scaled-not-prey form struggling to pull down a thick rope. "But there's really nothing we can do now! You flying out in that storm to look for her would just put another dragon at risk. She knows where the ship is."

"I am thinking she may not want to be seen by me," Second admitted, coming over and leaping above Ember's head to grab the rope, pulling it down as he fell. It was more initiative than Pearl had seen him take in weeks; it seemed either Ember's constant nudging or the oncoming threat was getting him a little more out of the submissive, passive shell he had retreated into.

"I'm thinking that too," Ember agreed, rushing over to the open water barrel and sliding a lid onto it, moving to roll it down below deck. Pearl took it from him, as she could do as much faster and easier, and he apparently had many things to do. "If I could, I'd go out looking, but even if my wing is probably better, I'm out of practice. It's just not safe."

His wing was probably better? Even amidst the worry and chaos, Pearl felt a happy purr working it's way up from her chest. They had been waiting for that! It had taken even longer than it should to heal because he couldn't spend all his time as a dark wing, needing his other body to keep the ship moving in the right direction.

"So, what _do_ we do?" she asked, feeling helpless.

"Get the sail down," Ember listed, pointing up at the taut, flapping white canvas. "Tie everything important together and down. Get below deck and wait out the storm. When it passes, we go looking."

O-O-O-O-O

Some time later, Pearl huddled in the cramped, small space below the deck, feeling miserable and worried. She was fond of the other female, caustic attitude and all. Storm was a friend, and it would be terrible to lose her. _Especially_ in the weather she was named after.

Rain pounded the wood above their heads. Wind rocked the ship. Second's tail twitched against her side.

Second was down below too, of course. Ember wasn't yet, still up above. Pearl might have called him down, but she was more worried about some giant wave swamping their ship before they could get out; at least Ember could provide warning if he saw it coming.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the hatch popped up and Ember stuck his head down. "If this is the worst of it then we'll be fine, it's not that bad," he reported. "A lot of rain, but not much wind. By dragon standards it's awful, but for Vikings it's really not much. Ships can withstand a lot more for a lot longer."

That _was_ reassuring. "Really?"

"Really. We'll be okay," he said confidently. "Storm will too, if she had anywhere to go. She might even just be gliding above the clouds. She's smart enough to think of that."

"That would require her passing through the clouds," Second rumbled, his voice far too close to Pearl's ear. They were pressed together, side by side thanks to the layout of the ship and its cargo. "Sometimes, lightning will strike those who fly through storm clouds. I have seen others die from that."

"That's not helpful, Second," Ember sighed, slipping down into the hold but not closing the trapdoor. Cold rain splattered down and wet Pearl's front paws, bringing with it the unmistakable scent of even more rain. His pale face was right in front of her nose. "And just so you know, this isn't your fault. It was just bad timing that Storm chose today to blow up at you."

Pearl nodded emphatically. She had been given an abbreviated summary as soon as she returned to the ship; really, what were the odds there would be a storm the same day Ember decided to try and bring Second back to a more normal state of mind by telling him to talk about everything, and thus set the stage for an actual argument instead of sniping from Storm and silence from Second?

"I hope not. Then she would have a reason to resent me personally."

Pearl couldn't help but rumble in laughter at that; she had literally never heard a joke from Second before, and he had delivered it in such a straight voice-

Wait, no, maybe he hadn't meant it as a joke. She didn't say anything about it, just in case.

She wished the storm would get lost, so that they could start looking for her. She also wished the missing dragon had a different name, because it was hard _not_ to get distracted thinking of plays on words like that one. Maybe that was just her.

In any case, this wait was going to be slow and torturous.

O-O-O-O-O

A loud thump from above woke Pearl from uneasy, but dreamless sleep. She instinctively tried to spread her wings and knocked into barrels on one side and Second on the other, both hard surfaces that hurt to hit.

"Ow," she said quietly, drawing her wings in and looking down. Ember was asleep in his No-scaled-not-prey form, lying in the small space neither she nor Second took up. Second was snoring, a ragged sound that spoke of a rough throat and a rough voice.

Another thump from above, and then a groan. Pearl recalled who was missing, and why, and her heart leaped.

"Ember," she hissed, prodding his side. "Ember!" They needed him to get the hatch up, or at least to move so she didn't step on him in doing it herself.

"Storm's passed?" he asked in his high voice, standing awkwardly. "I don't hear rain."

"I think someone is up there," she said quietly. It was not _certain_ the one who had landed was Storm, just more than likely.

"Got it," he said, lurching up the little slats in the wall and carefully lifting the hatch to poke his head out and see. "Yup, it's Storm. She looks horrible, but she's fine, and it's a nice, sunny day." His voice was wry. "The storm has tired itself out and come down to nap on our ship."

"I thought I was the only one making jokes about that in my head," Pearl admitted, waiting impatiently for him to move out of the way.

"The second it stopped being in bad taste I couldn't help it," Ember admitted, his voice drifting down to her as she reared up and lifted herself out into the open.

She saw Storm as soon as her head lifted up high enough to look out on deck; the bedraggled female had dropped just shy of the hatch, sprawling out on her stomach with her paws spread wide. Her body was stained and covered in little patches of mud, and she looked exhausted.

"I guess she found somewhere safe but not comfortable," she said, circling around the sleeping dark wing. "I don't want to wake her."

"Let her sleep," Ember agreed. "You can go flying."

"No," Pearl rumbled, remembering something from the night before, "we can go flying. Remember, you were going to get that stick off your wing today?"

"To go searching…" He shifted back to his dark wing body and experimentally flapped his injured wing a few times. "But it _is_ pretty much healed. I might wait a few more days…"

"Come on," Pearl whined, "it's bright and sunny and the air is wet and clean. This is the perfect day to get back into the sky." She was itching to take off herself, but getting Ember up took precedence for the moment, even if the chilly wet air was very tempting. There was something about flying after a storm that had always appealed to her.

"It would be safer…" He held her hopeful stare for a few heartbeats before dropping his eyes. "Okay, fine. For you."

"For me," she agreed, happier than she ought to be that he was going to risk a little bit to get into the air a few days sooner. They _were_ making progress, slowly but surely. He would not have given in to Storm asking the same thing, no matter how nicely she put it. She was sure of that. The tactic of just getting to know him and not making overtures was working.

Ember bent his neck and awkwardly flamed the stick holding his wing in the right position, burning it to a char that could not even hold itself together, much less anything else. One long flaming and a few shakes of his wing later he was free, and his wing looked as if it had never broken.

"If only the rest of me was so easily restored," he murmured sadly, looking at his wing. "Just a little time, a little fire, and something to hold me together in the meantime. If only that was all it took."

"Let's go," Pearl called out. She could see his point, but she could also see that he needed to be distracted, and the endless open sky called to her, so it would serve perfectly.

When she looked back moments later, he was following, his wings as steady as if one had never been broken. She had been the same in spending three moon-cycles tied down and then flying afterward; skill did not disappear, only the body's ability to match that skill with strength and endurance. Ember had not lost either in his time barred from the sky. He flew stiffly at first, but that soon dissipated as he grew confident in his ability to remain aloft.

They did not fly together, as such; she let him go where he would and did not attempt to follow too closely. But they were together in that they were both in the air where nobody else was, and that was enough for her at the moment. Engaging him in a game of tag or something along those lines was just asking for it all to go wrong. He _was_ flying on a newly healed wing.

But as she circled in huge, wide circuits around him, she saw a quick grin appear on his face, and she knew she had succeeded in taking his mind off of his losses, if only for a little while. That was good. That was part of why she was here. He _would_ be healed by time and by someone holding him together, and by the fire of love dealing the final blow to his depression and sorrow, though that felt downright silly to think, even to herself. It was no less true for feeling silly.

But that was a long time away; she liked him, but she could not truly call it love yet, and he would be no further along, if even that far. They still had plenty of time.

For now, she would watch him fly and maybe even fly alongside him for a time, if she felt like it. They were going the same place, in the end, even if he didn't know it.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm woke from her collapse on the ship with a start, simply because she did not remember fleeing the sodden rock she had sheltered on, and thus did not understand the texture under her, or the sun baking her scales, or the low rumbling of someone talking.

"Finally up?" Second asked, his back mostly to her. Only the corner of one wary eye was even visible to her. His attention was on the two distant silhouettes in the sky.

She only distantly registered that Ember was flying; the mental wound Second had tore open had closed, if very imperfectly, and she was just too tired to attack him in any way. She repositioned herself so that the other side of her back would be in direct sunlight, and tried to go back to sleep. She was too tired to care.

"I have a question. Neither of them will answer fully." He said it in the dull, uninterested voice he so often put on since the death of his first alpha. "What are they to each other?"

"Want her for yourself?" Storm found herself growling. "Forget it. She got out from under one like you, and nobody who cares for her will let her go back to that." If Second tried anything on Pearl, she would help her innocent, traumatized, naïve friend tear his most sensitive parts off, and then strangle him with them.

"No, I want nothing," Second huffed. "What are they to each other?"

Storm found herself answering honestly in the hopes that he would shut up once he had his answer. "She likes him, and he wants to die. She harbors hopes of getting his attraction in time. So, she hopes for him, and he sees her as whatever she is to him. He would be the only one to know that." Some of the ways Ember treated Pearl seemed like more than a friend, while others were obviously directed at one he was merely comfortable around, and others still just awkward enough to imply he was very aware that she was a pretty young female. It was all very contradictory, not even throwing in his non-Pearl mental problems.

"And that is a full answer," Second huffed. "I have been told I was harsh with you."

"Come on, you needed to be told?" she groaned. She would rather not have this conversation. He had made his point, and she couldn't really hate him for any of it now. She hated herself. If he was going to gloat, she wanted to be at the very least fully awake and able to fly away.

"Yes. I do not trust myself. Even the things I think I know must be questioned." He looked back at her. "I chose an alpha who would make me act good, because I do not know how to myself. So, I must be told."

"That makes you sound like the stupidest dragon alive," she sniped, her heart not in it. It was just something she would say, so she said it. "Everyone knows how to be good. Just do not do bad things."

"I do _not_ know," Second stressed. "I was not raised to know. All I know is what has made my life not worth living. I must learn, as slow as that is for me, or I will wind up like Third."

Third… She hated the name because of who it was associated with, the one who had made her, the one responsible for all this. "I hate him."

"So do I. With every waking breath. It is what drives me to do better. Sparing you was what made me better than him. He would not have."

The idea that Second was so obsessed with being less horrible than his counterpart was a new one to Storm. She let it roll around in her mind for a while, making a home there, though it had to push out quite a few wrong opinions to do so. While she processed that, Second turned back to watching his alpha and Pearl.

It was easier now for Storm to draw connections between herself and Second. She didn't hate him anymore, and she felt like she should hate herself. There was a link between them, one she hadn't expected even though it was obvious. She wanted to be better than Third too. She didn't want to let his influence, the anger and spite he may or may not have passed down, to rule her life and make her horrible. It had already caused her to do things she would always regret and never get to make up for.

"I want to be better than him too," she agreed after a long time.

"You might pledge yourself to my alpha," Second offered. "Have him teach better."

"He is no perfect dragon himself," Storm said dismissively. "And I am no follower." What worked for Second would never work for her; just as she couldn't follow that horrid No-scaled-not-prey alpha, she couldn't follow her half-brother as alpha. She followed none but herself.

"Then I have no advice, save for the obvious. Just do not do what Third would do."

"I do not know what Third would do," she admitted. "I never met him."

"I knew him. I hated him, but I knew him."

"Tell me." She didn't expect to hear anything good, but she still wanted to hear. "Tell me about him." She would listen, and every similarity Second described would give her a lead as to what to tear out of herself.

Second looked back at her, his orange eyes cold and dead, and began to do just that.

O-O-O-O-O

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Ember asked, gliding up alongside her.

"I am considering camouflaging and going in to find out," Pearl admitted. That was what she had first thought to do when she had noticed Second and Storm, both obviously awake, facing each other and not doing anything. From what she had been told had happened, calm words between them was the last thing she would have expected when they next met. In retrospect, it had been pure folly to leave them alone together in the first place.

"The thing is," Ember said doubtfully, "they do not seem angry at each other, which is a minor miracle, and I can just ask Second when we get back. It might be private."

"This is Storm," Pearl laughed. "Nothing is private with her." She had no real reason to say that aside from the feeling that if Storm thought something, she would never hesitate to say it. Why would secrets ever cross her mind? She certainly did not keep any for herself.

"But still… I'd rather you not spy," Ember admitted. "For Second to be talking to her of his own accord at all is as much progress as her not spitting bile at him. We might interrupt something important."

"I know," she admitted, "I'm just curious." It really wasn't any of her business what Second and Storm had to say to each other. She had enough mentally-struggling dark wings to try and help as it was. Ember and Storm, in their own ways, could handle Second, and she was pretty sure she couldn't help Storm, when she was trying to learn _from_ her at the same time.

O-O-O-O-O

In the days that followed, Storm grew, if not comfortable, then at least used to Second's existence, and remained with the ship more. They were both very open about what had brought them together, and nobody could argue with anything that helped Storm get past hatred of someone, even if it was sharing a hatred of someone else entirely.

And it was good that their difficulties had passed, because the world slowly began to catch back up to their ship. Silhouettes in the distance preceded the first island they had come within sight of since their trip began, and that brought a whole new set of hazards.

O-O-O-O-O

"Whatever you do, do not move," Ember said hastily, rolling buckets in front of them. "This wall will only be two layers thick, and they will hear you if you so much as snort."

"But if they see us we fire?" Storm sounded eager.

"If that happens, yes," Ember agreed. "We really should have gone around this island."

"The wind was not right for that," Second supplied helpfully. "We would have needed to know several days in advance to manage that."

"Yes, thank you Second, I know," Ember muttered worriedly, pulling another barrel over to hoist onto the stack he was creating. "I'm more bothered by how quickly they put out a ship to intercept us. It _looks_ like a port and trading stop, not a village, but a port wouldn't have such a proactive approach to strangers."

"Just be rid of them quickly," Pearl requested. She, being the smallest of the three hiding in the decidedly too crowded hold, had been forced to lie on top of Storm and Second to fit, and was not comfortable at all.

"I'll try," Ember promised, pulling the last barrel into position and blocking all light aside from the few cracks in the ship's deck above them.

Pearl distinctly heard the thumping of heavy No-scaled-not-prey as they boarded the ship, presumably from their own. She could also hear the distinctly different sound of Ember's false foot hitting the boards, telling her that he was moving to greet the newcomers.

"Wha's all this then?" a gruff voice grunted. "Ole Drago's insignia, one scrawny boy crewin' it, and nothin' but trouble all around, I say."

"I don't know who this ship originally belonged to," Ember lied, "but it's all I've got now. I'm just about out of food, and there's nothing but water and empty barrels aboard aside from that. If you want payment, I've got nothing. You can have some water, though."

"That'd explain why 'e's so skinny," another voice murmured. "No food."

"Nothin' worth stealin," another grumbled.

"We'll be checking your hold," the one who sounded to be in charge said firmly. "If we find anytin' more valuable than water, ye'll lose yer head for lyin'. Sound fair?"

"I mean, I'll certainly not kill you until you try to kill me," Ember said in a cold voice. "That's as fair as things will get. You can check the hold, but I don't take kindly to threats."

Pearl winced at that; she was pretty sure Ember knew how to talk to these No-scaled-not-prey, but it sounded like he was taunting them to her.

"Ey, look, a little man who thinks he's a big man," one laughed. "Doesn't even 'ave a weapon, jus' a skinnin' knife."

"Do your check and go," Ember said, flipping the hatch up. "And be quick about it, I want to be in port by nightfall."

"Really?" One of them stomped over to the hatch. Then, to Pearl's confusion, it slammed shut. "Search the deck!"

"Bu', wha' about below?" one of them asked, echoing Pearl's confusion.

"Come on, think wit' yer small mind," the leader chastised. "When a shrimp mouths off, it's cause it thinks it'll survive, so when 'e said go ahead and check and meant it, what 'e meant is that if there's anythin' 'ere, it _aint_ below deck."

At that announcement, four sets of heavy boots spread out across the ship, thumping and talking too low for Pearl to hear. A short time passed with nothing of interest going on to Pearl's knowledge, just the No-scaled-not-prey searching fruitlessly for valuables they really didn't have.

"Cor, not even a bit o' maggoty bread," one of them finally exclaimed. "We aint findin' anythin'. We're wastin' our time."

"Aye," the leader agreed, "we are. Oughta kill you," and at this Pearl got the impression he was pointing at Ember, "for not 'avin' anythin' to take."

Ember didn't respond.

"Come on, let's go," the leader shouted. There was thumping, and then the ship rocked. Silence fell.

What felt like an unbearably long time later, just as Storm was starting to do more than fidget in her impatience, Ember knocked on the hatch with his false foot. "Don't do anything yet," his voice advised. "They're watching me as they sail away. I'm making it look like I don't notice, but if they see me go down or anything else come up, they'll come back."

"I would like that better than having Pearl splayed across my wings," Storm complained.

"Their absence would be missed, our ship's description noted, and depending on who they were, possibly bounties set on alpha," Second drawled. "Nobody here wants that."

"Let's just wait," Pearl said, hoping that her opinion counted for something. She didn't understand half of what Second had said, and she doubted Storm did either, but it all sounded bad. Second would know, too; sometimes he seemed like more of a No-scaled-not-prey in a dragon's form than Ember did.

A long time later, made to feel longer still by Storm's periodic complaints, Ember stomped his false foot again. "Okay, they're out of sight, I'm coming down." Soon afterward, there was freedom… Of a sort.

"No flying?" Storm spread her wings very deliberately. "Or what?"

"Or you risk bringing every Viking in the area down on our ship, meaning we can't do anything here, meaning no resupplying, meaning you will no longer get to drink the water we keep in these barrels," Ember reasoned, his voice drifting up from the hatch as he put the barrels back in an arrangement that would make it easier to rebuild their disguise if needed. "Don't do it."

"We do not _need_ to resupply," Storm groaned once Pearl had translated for her.

"Better to be pessimistic than thirsty," Second corrected. "We do not know how long this will be the only safe place for us."

"And better to get out of here quickly in any case," Ember suggested, coming up from the hatch. "Pearl, you up for a little trip when night falls?"

"Yes, sure. Where are we going?"

"Why does _she_ get to fly?" Storm groaned.

"Because _she_ can do it without being seen," was the annoyed reply from Ember. "We'll get in, get more water, and get out."

O-O-O-O-O

"We're not just going for water," Ember said the moment they were out of earshot of the ship, shortly after night had fallen. He was gliding alongside her, sticking close to the ocean. "We'll find a good, isolated source of it, and then you can refill all the barrels. I'll be going into the port town and seeing what I can find out about Viggo's forces and the fleet I sent to attack him. With any luck, they'll give me an idea of where to start."

"What if I'm seen?" She wasn't visible, but the wooden cylinders she would be flying back and forth would be.

"Just drop whatever you're carrying and go straight up," Ember replied. "You'll not be in any danger of that, though, so long as you stick low to the water. It's cloudy out so visibility is low."

They flew around the small lump of rock and forest that passed for an island, avoiding the many ships and brightly lit buildings jutting out of one side, and landed near the first obvious pond on the far side.

"Okay, this seems good," Ember hissed, prowling around the small pond. "No signs of people, and they'd come in the day if they did come here at all. Just try to get as many filled as you can manage. I'll come find you here once you're done."

"Good luck," she said fervently. There was something reassuring about having the simple job of the two of them; if he could manage his part, then surely she could do something easier. She really was just pulling water from a pond with wood and flying it back to the ship. He had to go fishing for information.

O-O-O-O-O

"I did them all," she panted proudly. She had even gotten time to wade around in the shallows of the pond and wash herself afterward, removing the salty grime of living by the ocean for moon-cycles on end. That was why she was panting, not the exertion of flying barrels back and forth; she had just been ducking her head in the water when Ember came back.

"I have good news," he replied as they flew away. "Drago's forces were annihilated, but they struck a pretty good blow out here before that. Viggo is weak already, and his ships are all out to try and make up for it."

"What does that mean for us?" She was hazy as to what, exactly, Ember planned to do to destroy Viggo's empire. He had spoken of needing to take it down as thoroughly as he had Drago's so as to not leave any dangerous powers unopposed.

Ember growled ferociously, more than a hint of eager malice entering his voice. "Tired crews, ships sailing alone, and plenty of easy targets. We'll be sailing right into them if we continue onward. It won't be long before we begin to dismantle his empire, one ship at a time."

Pearl could only nod; she agreed with the plan and would be happy to see those who hunted, sold, and killed their kind gone, but she couldn't be happy about the anger in Ember's voice. It wasn't who he was, that anger, it was just him trying to hold on. She wanted to be his way to hold on.

A cloud shifted out from in front of the moon even as she thought that, and the ocean below was illuminated with silvery light. She was, too, her scales clean and her glint unblocked.

"You look great in the moonlight," Ember said lightly.

"Thank you," she purred, glad she had managed to take his mind off of revenge for just a moment. Maybe, sooner or later, it would not take a chance beam of moonlight to get him to notice her like that.

O-O-O-O-O

They flew through the mist with purpose, three dragons cutting the white shroud with their wings, unseen and unheard by those far below.

Storm was actually, to her own surprise, wishing Second's tail was regrown enough for him to join them. He would be great at this; war was his life, and these were even the same enemies his old alpha had meant to fight. But he was not yet able to take to the sky, and that would not change any time soon, so he was stuck waiting back at the ship.

At least it was not her back there, waiting with no idea what was happening. She got to take part in the first of many strikes against the No-scaled-not-prey most responsible for the deaths of her parents.

"There it is," Pearl called out from below. Her shape was strangely visible and yet not, a streak cutting through and disturbing the mist but composed of nothing at all. The swirling water vapor more than served to hide the usual shimmer, so it truly looked like there was nothing there, but she could be spotted by the lack, by the movement with no source.

"I see it," Ember growled. "Remember, fast and low, and as loud as you can, Storm."

"Obviously," she muttered, splitting from Ember and Pearl. Her part in this was to be the distraction, so if she was not loud then what was the point?

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl positioned herself under Ember as they flew past the ship, holding steady below him. The moment Storm's first defiant roar came to her ears, she slowed down, looking up.

Ember shifted, his fires bright and blue, and then fell to her back, grabbing on with every limb he had.

The moment he had a good grip he tugged her ear, indicating that he was ready, and she dove, leveling out just above the water as she curved around. If any of the No-scaled-not-prey they were ambushing were looking, they would see a scrawny No-scaled-not-prey apparently flying on its own.

But none were looking, thanks to Storm. The ship's large deck was in chaos, and none were looking down at the ocean around them, not when there were dark and terrible cries of rage and vengeance coming from the mist above.

Ember had explained to them, in coming up with this plan, that dragon hunters such as these saw them as mere animals, prey like all the rest. They did not expect an ambush simply because they did not think dragons capable of planning such a thing.

Storm had immediately brought up certain animals that hunted in packs and did do ambushes, and Ember had shrugged. No-scaled-not-prey weren't particularly thoughtful, as a general rule.

Then they were too close to the ship for her to ponder the stupidity or brilliance of what they were doing. She reared back, sacrificing all of her built up speed, and wrapped her paws around the wooden bar running along the edge of the ship to keep No-scaled-not-prey from accidentally falling off. The ship was large enough that her impacting it did not rock it too much; most of its occupants didn't notice.

But most did not mean all; Ember had not even fully made it over the bar before someone spotted him. Pearl heard the brief scuffle, and then a bit of black ash fell past her, floating oddly in the mist for an instant.

That had not been a part of the plan; Ember had refused to intentionally make a plan involving him taking a form from any of their enemies. It was a strange line to draw, but she was just glad he did draw lines at all. This would have worked without his special skill coming into play, but now that he had one from pure self-defense, it could be used, and they were safer than ever.

A rough, scarred hand tapped on the wood right below her nose three times, signaling that it was clear. She scaled the side of the ship, slipping silently onto the deck and memorizing the look of the form Ember was wearing. She would not accidentally kill him as Storm had if she could help it.

Ember nodded to the chaos currently consuming the far side of the ship, and she grinned toothily, though nobody could see it. All of the No-scaled-not-prey were aiming weapons out into the mist, but none were firing, too well-trained to waste shots on nothing. Storm was doing an amazing job of antagonizing them and by extension holding their attention.

So unbeknownst to anyone else on board, she and Ember crept over to the large grated hatches leading below, and she slipped down inside while Ember held one open.

This was the scariest part of the plan for her, even if it was not that risky. The sounds of conflict would have probably drawn any guards down here up to the deck, and if not, she was camouflaged and armed with a few handy strategies for taking them down, courtesy of Ember.

But there were no guards. An entirely different horror met her as she crept down the long passageway.

Cages, cells, dozens of them, lining the walls. People, dragons of every description, languished within. She did not recognize a fraction of them, and some defied her imagination, dragons with several heads or several tails or extra wings or bodies that did not seem like they would work for normal life. Most were sleeping, and the rest had yet to notice her presence.

Ember and Storm had not told her what it would be like to see so many different kinds of dragon, and those she had seen in the ice nest had been seen from afar. She knew she had led an isolated life, but to think that she could not name a single kind of dragon aside from her own and dark wings…

She shook off her awe, pushed past the repressed horror of what she was seeing, and made sure that there were no guards. Then she darted back to the hatch and hissed up to Ember. "All clear. There's a lot of them."

"Great," he said enthusiastically, dropping down to land next to her. "This guy's actually got the master key. We got lucky there. Want to give the speech?"

She nodded, tried to calm herself, failed miserably, and called out to the long, dark hold anyway. "You're all being released now," she explained, walking down the hold to be sure her voice reached them all. "Do not attack anybody, or they might shoot you down again. Do not attack the No-scaled-not-prey freeing you, he is on your side. Just get away from here as soon as you can."

A rumble of confused voices met that announcement, hisses and growls and whines of every description, but all went quiet when Ember came to the first cage and hastily unlocked it.

The dragon within, one who walked on two legs and had spikes all over, hissed and him and darted away, bashing its way up through the hatch and out of the hold.

One down, but this was when things were going to get crazy. As Ember continued to free dragons, she heard a growing clamor from above, the sounds of fire and pain and death, and she knew that some of the dragons they were freeing were not taking the advice to flee.

Ember had predicted that, too, in planning this out. There was no solution save for killing off the entire crew prior to releasing anyone, and they had decided not to do that this time.

Pearl knew her next task; she was supposed to stop any No-scaled-not-prey who came down from the other end of the long hold. She waited there, just out of sight of the hatches, her fire ready…

But none came. Ember worked his way down the hold, freeing dragons as quickly as his dexterous paws could twist the metal in the right way, unopposed by No-scaled-not-prey or dragon. He finished faster than she had anticipated, coming up behind her and laughing grimly. "Done. Time to end this ship."

She let him clamber onto her back, though she felt vaguely uncomfortable carrying the extra weight his now far bulkier body brought with it, and leaped up through the hatches, ready to fire.

She then spun in a circle, still ready to fire. But all that met her searching eyes was blood and bodies, and in the distance, shapes already blurred by the mist. The freed prisoners had left none alive.

Storm came down then, gliding in from above. "We are done here?" she called out excitedly.

"Yes, we are." Ember slid off of her back, shifting even as he hit the deck, and in moments they were off the ship, flying together.

"You two did not leave any kills for me," Storm complained as they circled around one more time and came at the ship from the side.

"They did not," Ember corrected. He and Storm let out two powerful blasts in unison, and Pearl quickly followed suit, hoping that neither of them would notice she hadn't been ready. She had forgotten that part of the plan.

Two bright explosions ripped a hole in the wood just below the waterline, and the belated third crashed down inside the hole, possibly blowing another in the other side. Water poured in immediately, after, and then they were turning, and she could see no more.

"Thank you!" a bright, buzzy voice called out from her right. She turned her head and saw a lumpy dragon straining to keep up with tiny wings, and slowed down so as to not leave it behind.

"Thank you," the dragon repeated happily. "I was only in there for two days, but others had been captive for moon-cycles! We owe you our lives!"

"Glad to help," Pearl replied, not sure what else she could say. Giving an explanation as to _why_ they had done it would do nobody any good; She certainly would not have wanted to hear that it was just revenge that happened to save her in the process, were their places reversed.

"If it is not too much trouble, my friends were caught too," the lumpy dragon said hopefully. "Near here, at the same time as me. They should not be too far. I know I cannot ask, but…"

"We're going to get all of the ships," Pearl explained. "So, your friends will be free soon." That was the plan. It would take time, but Ember had decided that he would begin weakening Viggo's empire that way, and she wasn't going to object to plans that gave her more time.

"Thank you for that too!" was the enthusiastic reply.

"Pearl!" Storm barked from the distant fog. "Keep up or you will never find us again!"

"Gotta go," Pearl said quickly, speeding up once more. She was sure Ember would circle back again to find her if she really lost them, but that would be embarrassing, and she wanted him to see her as capable, not always in need of saving. Hopefully, helping him with this would accomplish that. She would certainly get plenty of chances to prove herself over the next few moon-cycles. They weren't going to stop until the dragon hunting fleet was in tatters. However long that took.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Giving Storm an alternate resolution, devoid of Herb to apologize to, was certainly tricky. But then Second stepped in, and that kind of wrote itself. We're not done with her, but that was a pretty big deal.**

**Also, who can guess who next chapter is going to start with? I'll give you a hint, it's not Viggo.**


	11. All That Remans - Near (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The fifth entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer…**

* * *

Valka hated this part of her life more than any other part; it was awkward and dangerous and brought back bad memories. It didn't help that she had _always_ disliked taverns, even before casting aside the life of a Viking woman.

But there was no other place to go that had the useful combination of inebriation and information, the former disguising her quest for the latter, so she had no real choice in the matter. Whether she wanted to or not, she found herself frequenting dingy taverns and buying drinks on some nights, such as tonight.

She was dressed in as generic an outfit as she could piece together, though clothing that was made with a woman of her build in mind was rare, and she was no good at alteration. It had taken her years to assemble the no-nonsense, fisherwoman ensemble she wore tonight.

"Two more," she called out, slapping down the payment as a barmaid came over. She made sure to keep her voice rough and deep; acting feminine here was asking for trouble. She could have gone to a nicer tavern, there were several such places on the island, but given she was not much used to human company, a place where she was supposed to act coarse helped her disguise.

"Aye, yer great," one of the two despicable men she had gotten drunk slurred. "Helpin' a man ou' after missin' tha' catch o' a lifetime."

She knew as much already; she had picked out two distinctly unhappy hunters upon stepping into the tavern. There were none celebrating, and unhappy hunters were the next most likely to carry news she needed to hear. These two were from Viggo, judging by their temperament. Drago's men were more sullen and less talkative as a general rule.

Thought of Drago brought a true smile to her face, and she thanked the barmaid when she brought the next round of mead over. Just a few months ago, Drago's world-conquering aims had been the death of his fleet, and as far as she knew he had gone into hiding ever since. Someday soon, she might even be able to catch him off-guard and end the threat for good.

"We weren' even close," the other man moaned into his mug. "Stop callin' it tha'."

"We'da been kings," the first slurred back crossly. Even for Vikings, these two had drank far more than they could handle. " _Two_ o' 'em. We oughta ge' another ship, they're ou' there still."

"Wanna find 'em again?" the surlier of the two growled. "Jus' keep workin' for Viggo. Tha's the third time I've los' a ship to 'em. I's no' _natural_ 'ow smart 'ey are. I thin' they're 'oldin' a grudge."

"Aye," the first said sadly. "Maybe. I 'eard Viggo got 'is 'ands on some a while back, an' guess wha'?"

"What?" Valka asked leaning back in her chair. She wasn't sure what they were even talking about, which was a hazard of trawling the drunken dregs of society for information, but the little she was getting painted an interesting picture.

"'E killed 'em!" the man slurred, slamming one of the many empty mugs on the table. "Catch o' a lifetime, four o' em, an' 'e sunk the buyer!"

She sighed, pressing a hand to her face. She knew what they were talking about there. Night Furies were so rare, it had been a memorable, gut-wrenching disappointment to hear Viggo had callously sold and then killed off _four_ of them, and even worse to hear it from the plant she had sent to that very auction without enough money to buy them and avert their fate. She had no way of knowing, of course, and buying them might have gotten her representative and the beautiful Titan-wing Nadder her representative _had_ managed to buy killed if Viggo had still targeted them, but still.

But… "You're saying Night Furies sunk your ship?" she ventured gruffly.

"Three times an' countin'," the sullen man agreed. "There'll not be a fourth for me, no way. Gotta 'ave more luck than anyone to ge' this far. Shipwrecked twice, almost torn to pieces once…"

"Where did this happen?" she probed, focusing on the less downcast man. If there were Night Furies about, she wanted to meet them. At worst she'd finally get to see one up close, and at best her nest would be two powerful dragons stronger.

"Three days South, a week ago," he replied loudly. "Gotta go back, gotta get a crew and go… You wanna go?"

"I think not," she replied, rising and slapping another payment on the table. "One more round, on me."

"Gonna ge' me drunk so yeh can ge' a head star'…" he grumbled. "Smar'."

Valka turned her back on the table and quickly made her way to the exit, ignoring a few coarse comments cast her way from the worst of those around her. Most of them were hunters, and most would give a limb or two to capture her and bring her to their master… If they knew who they were letting walk away.

But they didn't, and if she was careful, they never would. She hurried to the edge of town, slipped into the forest, and sighed in relief. She was no master deceiver; only the stupidity of those she tricked made what she did viable. It was the same reason she had never, under either of the identities she wore, come anywhere near Viggo or Drago. Both men were reputed to be experts in the art of seeing what lay beneath a mask, and she could not afford that.

Once she was far enough into the forest, she let out a piercing whistle, and a lanky, metallic dragon soon descended, landing on a tree and swarming down.

She nodded, tapped a hand to her thigh, and pointed up. The dragon hurriedly stuck its neck between her legs and lifted her up, springing back into the air with her.

High above the island, another dragon met them, this one larger and with four wings. "Mine," Cloudjumper growled lightly.

"Yours," the Razorwhip agreed, rearing back and slinging its neck forward. Valka let go with her legs at the same time, more than familiar with the motion, and landed deftly on her best friend's back.

"How was it tonight?" he rumbled with his exceedingly deep voice.

"Safe, as always," she replied by rote. If he did not think it was safe, or at least relatively so, he would try to stop her from doing it again in the future. In this case she was telling the truth, but in the past she had been forced to lie.

"News?" he purred, the tension leaving his back as he relaxed.

"Word of dark wings destroying hunter ships," she relayed happily. "Close, too. Only a few days South."

"Recruitment?"

"If they're willing," she agreed.

"If not?" Her friend craned his stocky neck back to get a look at her, his large yellow eye meeting hers.

"We're not taking them back by force," she laughed. "That's only for those who are injured and unable to understand." Or, that was the only time _she_ would abduct a dragon. Before she had shown up, she suspected her friend had a much less strict policy about such things, but he deferred to her now. He was a good sport about it, too.

"They are dark wings, anyway," he rumbled. "We likely would not be able to take them back by force, not without losing half our flock."

"I don't doubt that," she replied, "but I've yet to see why they are so respected." She would have to see one in action to understand why even her powerful friend considered dark wings to be so dangerous, and that would require seeing one in the first place.

"If we find them, you will see," he promised.

O-O-O-O-O

"Luck," Valka breathed quietly to herself a few weeks later. She and Cloudjumper had gone on a scouting flight, just for something to do. The rest of the flock was a quarter-day's flight to the West, and they had meant to search in an Eastward direction. This was supposed to be a nice, calm flight through the clouds.

Instead, they had happened across what they were looking for. She leaned over her friend's shoulder, looking down past his neck to the scene below. More specifically, to the dragons departing it. Two sleek, broad-winged shapes, one orange and one a muddled grey, flying away from a burning, sinking ship. There was no movement on the deck, and from here she could not see the details, but the red hue told her enough.

"They leave few survivors," her friend remarked. "Some in the water, but none on the deck."

"At least they _do_ leave some alive," Valka remarked quietly. "Else we'd never have come here looking."

"They are still dangerous," was the solemn reply. "We should follow from a distance and observe. If they are too combative, we will return to the flock and bring an escort, for safety."

"Oh, that's too much worry," she chided as they descended to follow the quick shapes to wherever they were nesting. "Think they're a mated pair? The species could really use a few of those."

"Not from how they fly," her friend replied, crushing her hope on that subject. "One limps in the air and bleeds, and the other does not seem overly concerned. Allies, maybe, at best."

"I wish I had your eyes," she admitted, leaning forward even more in a futile attempt to get a better look. "Have they noticed us?"

"Not that I can tell…"

Valka was about to ask something else when she was bowled over from behind. Two heavy objects struck her shoulders, and her body lurched forward, flipping past Cloudjumper even as he flew. She twisted in the air, more than used to falling thanks to constant practice, and her mind ground to a halt.

There was _nothing_ in the sky around them aside from her friend, who was diving for her. Nothing at all. Nothing below, nothing above, nothing to any side, she could even still see the two blurs in the distance that they were trailing.

The wind rushed past her body, and she mentally calculated how long it would take her friend, who was not the most efficient diver, to get to her. There was plenty of time, so she wasn't worried.

Then something struck her legs, and she was spinning, being hauled through the air by nothing at all. Her friend roared angrily and gave chase, but whatever was pulling her along was strong, so strong and fast that it felt like her leg was being pulled apart. She let out a pained scream, unable to handle it.

A sudden, final jerk on her leg brought her up to the side a little, and then another set of claws was latching onto her other leg, lessening the pain immensely. She was dangling, upside-down, from an invisible dragon who barely made a blur in the air.

Strangely, her first thought was to wonder what kind of dragon was taking her. She knew of none that could camouflage in midair; Changewings needed something to camouflage against, and that did not work in the air.

Her second thought was to look backward and see how close Cloudjumper was, but when she did she felt her heart drop. He was being rapidly left behind, the gap between them shrinking at a tremendous pace.

So, she was being kidnapped by an unknown dragon, for unknown purposes. She had only been in this position once before in her life, and that had ended pretty well, so she wasn't as scared as she might have been. She didn't bother calling out to her kidnapper; dragons sometimes shook their prey if it was noisy, and the vast majority would not understand her. She didn't have her staff, either, so making herself understood would need to wait for wherever they were going.

"Ugh," the dragon above her grunted, shifting its grip, "you are throwing me off balance."

She felt the urge to laugh at that, and might have if her head wasn't swimming from being upside-down so long. The way it had been said was funny, but she was also relieved to hear a young, feminine voice as far as dragons went. This was no man-eating, battle-hardened elder of a dragon, that would be far more difficult. Only the most suspicious of dragons held onto their skepticism in the face of all she knew about communicating with their kind, even without her staff.

Really, unless she was missing something, this was just a minor inconvenience. The biggest problem was going to be consoling her protective friend once she made her way back to him; he was going to have issues with how easily she had been stolen from him.

"Got it?" another female called out from behind. Valka twisted her head to behold an unfamiliar dragon turning to fly alongside her unseen kidnapper. She didn't know the details…

But her mouth fell open all the same, as hard as that was to accomplish while dangling upside-down. This had to be a Night Fury. Sleek, large wings, a strangely alien head, smooth scales, odd little nubs and frills and ears, a mottling that would look beautiful on any dragon… It all fit.

"Got it," the unseen one confirmed. "How is he?'

"A few days will see it healed, like all the rest," the Night Fury replied calmly. "He is going to be more scar than scale by the end of this, but these are not that bad."

"But he is in enough pain to send you back and not come himself?" the invisible female asked.

"He does not even know we were being followed," came the smug reply. "Good thinking, by the way."

"I saw a No-scaled-not-prey riding a dragon. What else could I have done, ignored it and not said anything?"

"You _could_ have come and told us about it so that we could decide what to do," the Night Fury said carefully. Valka sensed a firm lecture coming for her kidnapper.

"I could have," the young female replied.

"And instead you took initiative and stole it right off the other dragon's back," the Night Fury chortled. "See, you are learning! That is something I would do in a heartbeat."

Or maybe not? She didn't understand the dynamic between the Night Fury and the other; that almost sounded proud, though there was a sense of seniority with the Night Fury. If it was Dam and child then there would be a different dynamic, but at the same time there was something similar going on. She really didn't get it.

"I don't know what to do with it now, though," her kidnapper admitted. "Ember could talk to them."

"Like he would get anything useful out of it. Besides, the one you stole it from is coming for us," the Night Fury observed, looking back. "We should just land on that sea stack up ahead, wait, and then question _him_ about all of this. If we like what we hear, we can give it back, and if not, we can crush its little head against the rock."

"Hey!" Valka's kidnapper protested. "Why would we do that?"

Valka was glad _someone_ here had some sense; the Night Fury was sounding an awful lot like the kind of dragon she wouldn't be able to work with without either her staff or the alpha to help, but her kidnapper seemed innocent and kind.

"It is an option," the Night Fury said calmly. Moments later, the two dragons landed on the sea stack the Night Fury had pointed out, and Valka was set, somewhat gently, on the rock.

She lay there for a long moment, letting the throbbing in her head subside. It wouldn't do to stand and then immediately stumble off of the rock and into the ocean because of a dizzy spell.

"So… We just wait here?" the young female asked.

"Well, unless you can talk to it, yes," the Night Fury grumbled. "You cannot, right?"

"Not unless it knows what I am saying," the young female replied, her body a blur perched on the edge of the sea stack. "I know their language, but that doesn't mean I can speak it."

"You do?" Valka asked, sitting up so fast the world whirled around her. Both Night Fury and blur started at her sudden movement.

"Yes, I do," the young female warbled, only sounding marginally surprised. "I suppose you understand us as well?"

"Definitely." _Now_ she was in familiar territory; talking to dragons when communication went both ways was easier and less dangerous than talking to Vikings. Dragons were less prone to stupidity and rash killing. "I am a friend of your kind." She wouldn't bother with her name, dragons didn't have names as a general rule and thus would not care.

"I guess that makes sense. You were riding a dragon," the female admitted. "I hope I did not hurt you on the way here."

"Not enough to matter," Valka replied kindly. Her leg felt strained, and she would probably have a few bruises, but that was all. That was a fair payment for finally getting up close and personal with a Night Fury.

And at that, she _was_ right on the same sea stack as one, _and_ an unknown species. She shouldn't be wasting time with pleasantries. "If you could tell me what kind of dragon you are, and maybe let me look you over, I would consider us even on that score."

The camouflaged dragon repeated her words, and the Night Fury snorted at her. "Look her over? How?"

"So long as you do not hurt me, sure," the young female replied tentatively.

Valka crept forward, her hands outstretched, being sure to keep her head down so as to not appear threatening, and soon enough she found warm, almost hot scales. "What do your kind call themselves? I have no idea what you are."

"I am a light wing," the female replied, sliding whatever part of herself Valka was touching down, revealing frills and ears similar to what she could see on the Night Fury. "Why do you care?"

"I love dragons, and wish to know everything about every kind," Valka said honestly. She wished she could see the dragon she was petting. "Is there a way to let me see you?"

"Wait for my scales to cool. That's the only way, really. I am not going swimming on a day like today."

"Certainly not," the Night Fury huffed. "Ask the No-scaled-not-prey what we should say when its dragon gets here. I would rather not get into a fight over this."

"That is one good thing about fighting so often," the young female murmured to the other dragon. "You are not itching to get into unnecessary fights."

"The easiest way to mollify him would be taking me out to meet him," Valka answered. "On your back, ideally. But we are here to meet you, anyway."

"Why?" The scales and frills under her hands pulled away, and she got the impression she was on the receiving end of a skeptical stare. "How did you even know about us, to seek us?"

"We heard of two Night Furies wrecking hunter ships, and since we do the same, we came to find out whether you would want to join us." It wasn't her most eloquent, subtle recruitment speech, but there was no reason for them _not_ to-

"Fat chance," the Night Fury barked in amusement. "Our little group is too big as it is, and we don't need any more help. We've turned away plenty of rescued dragons already."

"It's not really your call, Storm," the camouflaged female said in annoyance. "I agree, and Ember will too, but we should at least find out what he thinks."

"Ember would be the other Night Fury?" She was almost as intrigued by the fact that they _did_ seem to use names, but that wasn't as relevant at the moment.

"Yes. I'm Pearl, by the way," the female said casually. "You can come meet him, I guess. He won't want to join up with a big group, but we're not the ones making that call."

"I would definitely like to meet him." Even more so if he was their alpha in some way. If she could change his mind, she could get these two with him.

"Incoming," Storm remarked, looking off to the side of the sea stack. "He does not look to be ready to listen to reason."

"Don't worry, that's just a front," Valka reassured them. She turned and waved her arms at Cloudjumper, trying to project an image of calm. "It would be easier if I could touch you, Storm. He would see that and calm down." They had only a few moments before he would be within roaring distance, and she'd rather not have this devolve into threats, which it probably would.

"If I had not just fought a large battle, I would refuse," Storm grumbled, holding out a paw. "Touch away."

Valka put both hands on the paw and turned her body so that it would be visible from afar. A few heartbeats later, Cloudjumper slowed, though he was still flying at near his top speed.

"She is mine!" he roared as soon as he got within roaring distance. "Do not harm her!"

"What's the connection here?" Pearl asked curiously.

"He is my best friend, and I his." She left out that he was the only Stormcutter either of them had ever seen, and thus probably lonelier than he should be, aside from her.

"Well, that is the only obvious connection," Storm said snarkily. "It would be pretty odd for them to be mates, or related in any way."

"I do not want that image in my head, Storm!" Pearl complained. "Now I won't be able to forget it. I'm going to get you for this."

"You will try. I am getting good at seeing you coming," Storm purred maliciously.

"What is the connection between you two?" Valka asked. She would not usually have put it so directly to them, but that reluctance made no sense when they were joking about her and Cloudjumper. If they could be direct to the point of being offensive, so could she.

"Let's see…" Pearl huffed loudly. "How best to put it?"

"We are friends who share targets of vengeance," Storm said blithely. "We were rescued together, we went on an assassination mission together, and now we are waging war together. And once we are done here, we have another dragon to kill, too."

"You make it sound like we bond over cracking skulls," Pearl complained. "We're both just friends helping another friend."

A loud roar interrupted them, and Valka sighed. She should have known he wouldn't take her being stolen lightly, even if it was all right now.

"You stole my No-scaled-not-prey," Cloudjumper thundered, slowing to hover in front of the sea stack, his four wings beating in time and making him look far larger than he really was, dwarfing the Night Fury and presumably the light wing too.

"Be glad we did not mean it any harm," Storm called out. "Because you sure were not fast enough to stop anything."

Valka winced at that. She was going to have a hard enough time soothing his wounded confidence later without Storm driving his failure home.

"I want her back now," he replied sullenly.

"I'm on my way." She took a step back and vaulted off the sea stack, trusting him to catch her, which he did, first in his claws and then after a short toss, on his back. "And I'm fine," she continued.

"They stole you," he grumbled angrily.

"A simple case of curiosity," she explained. "And a female who can fly unseen. We're going to accompany them to the other dark wing."

"Right now, instead of having them come to our flock?"

"Yes, right now." She didn't think they'd want to come meet her flock right now, so going to them was the only good option.

"Follow us and try to keep up," Storm called out, lifting from the sea stack. Presumably Pearl did the same. "We will go slow for you."

"Obnoxious female," Cloudjumper rumbled to her. "Is the other as bad?"

"The other is like a new adult, naïve and innocent," Valka replied. She had gotten that impression, at least, aside from the talk of killing enemies together, which came from Storm. "We are going to meet the one that acts as their alpha."

"The injured one. He will not be in a good mood."

"No, but what else can we do, fly away and forget we found them? We do not even know if they will be here tomorrow." This little flock of Furies moved constantly. They had to, in order to take down so many ships in such short order. They were doing more damage in weeks than Valka could recall doing in months at a time.

O-O-O-O-O

Some time into the flight, which passed mostly in silence, a shimmer in the air caught Valka's attention. She watched in awe as the body of a dragon blurred and rippled into existence, the camouflage fading and dying out in patches that spread and moved. When it was over, a breathtaking white Fury flew alongside Storm, her ruby red eyes occasionally glancing back at the much larger dragon following.

"So… She is a dark wing?" Cloudjumper rumbled. "A light dark wing."

"She called herself a light wing, like it was a separate kind," Valka recalled. "Very, very similar, but separate." Aside from being sleeker and having an odd reflection at times, Pearl was identical to Storm in all the important ways. "And she cannot end her camouflage prematurely, I think."

"That is odd," her friend admitted. "Do you know how she activated it, or if there is a limit?"

"No, but she was hot when I touched her scales," she mused. That might be a hint, or it might be coincidence; for all she knew, Pearl always felt unusually hot, or was sick and running a fever at the moment, or had any of a dozen other explanations that did not link the heat with her method of camouflage-

But no, Pearl had mentioned waiting for her scales to cool down, so it definitely was related to heat. She hoped she could get a better explanation when they got wherever they were going.

O-O-O-O-O

A small, mostly desolate island loomed in the distance. Cloudjumper followed the two Furies to it, and descended with them, though Valka could tell he was tense. His back muscles always tensed when he was worried or nervous.

"What's the matter?" she whispered. She had not seen any sign of the other Fury, but the island was small enough that he could not be far. She also hadn't seen any signs of treachery or even just trickery occurring between the two females leading them. Aside from those concerns, she couldn't guess at what was bothering him.

"I feel eyes on me."

"We're a strange sight he doesn't expect." So long as there weren't any more camouflaged dragons around, they would see the owner of the eyes soon enough.

She didn't dismount once Cloudjumper landed; they had long ago agreed she wouldn't in situations that made him wary and didn't directly call for it.

"Storm, should we go ahead and warn him?" Pearl asked.

"Why?" Storm shook herself, flapping her wings at the ground before folding them in. "He does not need to guard himself, he has someone to do that for him."

"Okay… Follow us," Pearl directed, walking into the sparse forest. Cloudjumper stalked after her, looking from side to side as he went.

Valka was beginning to feel the same thing he had spoken of; she couldn't ignore the sensation of cold, dead eyes on the back of her neck. It wasn't just that they were being watched, she suspected they were in immediate danger.

"Ember will not try and attack us, will he?" she asked.

Pearl looked back at her. "No, he won't. But try not to make any sudden moves. He's not the one you need to worry about."

"I told you there was someone watching," Cloudjumper hissed. "This is dangerous, it is the feeling one gets when a cold killer is stalking. I don't know what is around, but it is not safe."

"No, he is not safe," Storm agreed. "So, if you know what is good for you, you will not make any sudden moves or say anything too angry." She seemed to be enjoying their discomfort. "And, we're here."

The two females slipped around an unusually close-knit stand of trees and stopped just to the side. "Ember," Pearl said quietly, pawing at someone just out of sight, "we found a dragon and human who fly together. They want to meet you."

"Do they?" a deep, smooth voice asked. "Well, I want to meet them."

Valka stared as an orange Night Fury limped out from behind the stand of trees, his left back paw held close to his stomach. There was an expansive gash running across his side, long but shallow, and a small puncture wound near the top of his forehead. His deep orange eyes betrayed a mix of pain and curiosity, and his body was littered from end to end with scars of every size, shape, and severity.

Those deep eyes focused on her, and he straightened, losing some of the wariness he exuded. "Interesting. A masked female and a large four-wing."

"How did you know?" Valka asked, caught by surprise. Dragons were not usually able to tell the gender of a human at all, and certainly not beneath her riding outfit without even seeing her face! She was pretty sure most Vikings couldn't do that.

"Easy. You are fit, but your chest…" he put a paw to his own heavily scarred chest and let it drop a bit. "Armor only bends out like that for women or out of shape men, and you are not out of shape."

"Ember," Pearl chided, "isn't that rude to say to her? You would not point out…" She trailed off, looking away with a look Valka easily identified as embarrassment. "Well, you would not say the equivalent to a female of our kind."

"Maybe if I was No-scaled-not-prey it would be crude," he said, putting emphasis on that for whatever reason. "But I am not, so it is just my explanation."

"And you are right, of course," Valka admitted. "But how did you come to know so much about my kind?"

"Observation." He shrugged his wing shoulders. "Also other things, but it does not matter so much in the end. If you want to find others like yourself, go to the island known as…"

"Yes?" she asked.

"I am only now realizing that island's name does not really translate," he admitted. "It sort of means 'idiot', but that's not how it's meant there. They say it is twelve days North of hopeless, and a little bit South of freezing to death? But those are not really directions…" He huffed in annoyance.

But Valka had heard enough. It was like a blow to her chest, once again hearing a saying she had heard often enough on one island in particular, a joke with some truth to it. She found that she couldn't breathe. The one-two strike of being told there were others, and _then_ being told they were on Berk, was just too much, pleasant surprise outweighed by absolute shock and disbelief.

"How… why Berk?" she managed.

"Yes, that's the one," he said. "Change came to them by chance. They can tell you the story. Their Chief knows it well, she was a big part of it." He shrugged his wing shoulders. "But I've not been there in a while, and don't expect to ever return. How do _you_ know that place?"

"I fought in the area for a time," she admitted, skirting around the true reason it shocked her so. In her years of meeting new dragons she had learned that most considered abandoning a mate and hatchling a heinous crime, and thus as a general rule did not reveal her true origins. "Those who lived there were not receptive, so I moved on."

"To be fair, they were under repeated, senseless attack." Ember nodded to her. "You've had better luck here under the white alpha of ice and mental power, I presume."

Again, a shock, knowledge he should not possess. "How," Cloudjumper interrupted, "did you know who we serve?"

"We visited that nest several moon-cycles ago," Pearl volunteered. "We were told they had a No-scaled-not-prey around, but that it was off on a mission with many of the other dragons."

And again, a logical explanation. She was glad Ember did not seem to be looking into her mind the way her alpha could but chose not to; it certainly seemed like he was.

"And you did not stay?" she asked, seeing the chances of recruiting these three slipping away. There was nothing she could offer them that they did not already know about, and they had left once already, judging those benefits not worth remaining for.

"My path in life does not lie in that nest, or any nest," Ember said somberly. "I have one goal left, and then it is over."

Valka noticed, even while staring at Ember, that Storm huffed in annoyance and Pearl shook her head defiantly. "Over?"

"I will utterly destroy these hunters, and then I will be done. I do not wish to live past that." Ember's cold, sad eyes bore into her own. "Tell me, what do you fight for?"

"That. Destroying Viggo, and Drago, and all those who enslave and imprison dragons to further their own ambition." She was on safe ground with that question, but she did not feel safe. "You?"

"Vengeance."

"Four Night Furies drowned after being sold," Cloudjumper said with the air of one who now understood what had previously been unfathomable.

"My sons, my Sire, and my Dam." He nodded over at Storm. "Her Dam, too."

"And Sire in all but blood," Storm muttered.

"And that," he agreed. "We fight for vengeance. Pearl is here because she chooses to be."

"He saved me, and I don't want to leave this unfinished," Pearl explained. "So, now you know. Who we are, what we are doing, all of that."

"Now we know. I don't suppose you would like to join our nest? We fight Viggo and Drago and their people, and our alpha is strong."

Ember shook his head ruefully. "No. Storm or Pearl may go if they wish, I am not holding them to me, but for me, I will not."

Then he seemed to recall something, and his eyes brightened. "Also, how long has it been since you were at your nest?"

"How long?" Cloudjumper huffed in annoyance. "A moon-cycle, no more, but that is not your business."

"And everything was well? No… Upheavals?"

"None. Why?" She couldn't help but notice the pattern, him throwing her off with inexplicable knowledge every time she thought he was done revealing things.

"I wonder what happened to him," Ember mused, absently stretching his wings out in a gesture Valka knew to be similar to that of a human rolling their shoulders. "He should have arrived long since… Has your alpha been injured recently? Or has a new dragon like him but smaller arrived?"

"Oh, _that_ ," she exclaimed. "Yes, we got another like our alpha. He came peacefully enough. We almost never see him because only one of their size can fit in the nest at a time. He is young and has a lot of bad mental habits, so our alpha keeps a close eye on him."

Ember sighed and closed his eyes, leaning forward. "That, at least, is good."

"This speaking in vague wording and asking questions is pointless," Cloudjumper objected, coming to the end of his patience for such things. "You will not join our flock?"

"No." Ember looked to Pearl and Storm.

"Never," Storm said defiantly. "I obey myself and none other."

"It's not for me," Pearl declined more politely, favoring Valka with an apologetic warble. "Sorry. Your alpha was very helpful, though. Next time you see him, could you tell him I say I am still trying to follow his advice?"

"Of course." She nodded politely from her perch atop Cloudjumper's back. "I guess we will be going now, then…"

"One thing bothers me," Cloudjumper said suddenly. "If these three are all that are here, who or what stalked us on this island?"

"I do not see any reason to say," Ember replied after a short pause. "If he wants to speak to you, he will show himself. If you want to meet him, you might walk out of this forest instead of flying immediately. It is his choice whether you see him."

Valka exchanged a look with Cloudjumper; she knew all too well that he wanted to fly away and not chance it, and he knew that she wanted the opposite. If there was a third new kind of dragon here, she wanted to know about it.

If that was all there was to their argument, they would be at a stalemate, but Cloudjumper was also curious, even if he was wary, so when they left it was by ground, not by air.

"I am not sure whether I would even want them to join our nest," Cloudjumper admitted once they were far enough away that they would not be overheard. "The female dark wing would be frustrating."

"Maybe." Overall, she would rather be taking them along, but Ember in particular unsettled her. She had never met a dragon who wanted to die like that before, or one who seemed to know so much more than he was saying. At least Storm was a known issue; rebellious, contrary dragons who said what they thought were not so rare, though she took it to an extreme.

As the shore came into view, the feeling of being watched redoubled, and she found herself searching the trees for eyes on her, to no avail.

"There it is," Cloudjumper growled, stepping out onto the sand. "Another of them."

She saw it, finally, creeping along the shore toward them, in full view. It was a dark wing, one as scarred as Ember and somehow more dangerous in looks, one with fey eyes. _This_ was a dragon she would have fled upon first sight, were she alone. Predators like that did not often care whether their prey spoke or not. They did not often speak themselves, either.

So, she was more surprised than she should have been when the ominous dark wing stopped and called out to them. "You are leaving and will not return."

"We do not plan to," Cloudjumper snarled. "If you follow, you will find no easy prey."

"I do not prey on others," the Night Fury replied in its gravelly, toneless voice. "Not of my own will, or of my current alpha's will."

"You will let us go, then," Cloudjumper demanded, flaring all four wings as he made to launch himself into the air.

"Go."

Valka didn't protest their abrupt departure. She didn't expect to get much of interest out of that dragon; it was lucky enough that it didn't feel like pursuing. She would expect such brutality from a dragon under Drago's dominion. In fact, this one reminded her of the Night Fury he was rumored to have bent to his will-

She turned and looked back as they left, examining the Night Fury on the shore for as long as she could. It was impossible to say whether they were one and the same, but if she had to guess at what a dragon would look like, willingly working for and helping Drago Bludvist, that would be it. Scarred, dull, a predator with little willpower of his own.

"You have had your look, and they are not receptive to joining us," Cloudjumper summarized as they flew away. "We can go back to our normal routes now?"

"Yes, we can." She couldn't help feeling like she was leaving behind a mystery, but they had responsibilities, and those responsibilities didn't involve wasting too much time chasing unsettling dragons bent on revenge and death. As it was, she now had to consider whether their next trip would involve going back to familiar waters and one island in particular, to see what Ember meant when he spoke of Berk and others like her.

"Actually," she continued after a long pause, "we should call the mission off and head back now." She needed to talk to her alpha, to go over it and decide whether it would be smart to go to Berk. This needed to be answered.

"These dark wings are doing our work for us anyway," her friend rumbled agreeably. "We can afford to cut it short. But you get to announce it."

She smiled and slapped the broad back beneath her. "You just do not want to deal with the disappointment," she complained. "You'll agree with me in public, and then commiserate the moment my back is turned."

"Maybe."

"Traitor."

"Risk-taker."

Neither of them looked back as they left the four Furies to their journey.

O-O-O-O-O

"I did not like them," Storm said rudely. "Second?"

"I might have fought them, had our paths crossed in the past," Second admitted. "I was looking forward to it, actually, or my alpha was. It was odd to see them and let them leave alive."

"Odd, but the right thing to do," Ember called out, having hauled himself over to the shore. He was lying in the sand, resting, and presumably enjoying the breeze.

Pearl, feeling protective, though she would have denied it had Storm or Ember brought it up, had taken up a spot just behind him, and was watching the sky. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she could not help feeling wary of them returning for one reason or another. That entire encounter felt like too much was being left unsaid.

"Oh," she huffed, remembering something, "Ember, why did you not tell her more of Berk, or your origins? You told us."

Ember rumbled quietly. "People do not usuallytake what I can do very well. You two were a special case, for many reasons. I am not in the habit of telling everyone I meet. It gets tiring, explaining and answering the same questions over and over again."

"They seemed understanding."

"Most people do. She kept secrets, I am sure, and I did the same. She will find out about me if she goes there. By then, it will not matter anymore." His tail slid back and forth across the sand, sweeping a small hollow into existence.

Pearl winced, and then snarled at nothing in particular. She was not going to let that happen. She slid herself forward and turned, sitting in a new place. Not looking at him, not even within his range of sight, her back to him…

And her tail, going where it would seemingly at random, drifting over to rest atop his in the little hollow he had dug. She was not going to look at him, and if he stared she wouldn't notice. A small gesture, maybe, but one he could not ignore if he tried.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Why yes, I did just do that. Valka was never going to be a part of the story if I had chosen this path to follow in canon; she does not serve any real purpose, as they're already set against Viggo and Drago, and represents an easy out when it comes to Ember's issues.**

**In fact, given where we stop following canon to do this AU, technically speaking she might not even be the Collector in this universe, or she might not exist at all, just as I could have totally ignored the existence of the young Bewilderbeast if I chose. I didn't have to keep either of those elements in for this, though I decided to play with and dismiss them instead of directly deleting them from existence. Thus, both are sent out of the story in relative peace.**

**It's also entirely intentional that both Valka's and Ember's "people don't take it very well" approaches prevented recognition on either side. Hypothetically she might find out on Berk, if she goes there, but by then it will be far too late, and we're not going to see her again.**

**She also, coincidentally, served as a way to convey that the 'new Second' has not caused any trouble, though I'd take her explanation as to what's going on there with a** _**huge** _ **grain of salt. It's not as if she would know what happened between the two Bewilderbeasts, who undoubtedly would have sensed each other's presence long before anyone else was aware of anything odd going on. Add that to a nice little mini-encounter to check in partway through the long destruction of Viggo's empire, and this chapter was quite useful. Not much happens of note over the time it takes to decimate the hunters one ship at a time, so I'm certainly not going to depict it day by day.**


	12. All That Remains - Inexorable (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The sixth entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer. I'm going to admit right up front that I had** _**way** _ **too much fun constructing and then writing out the main part of this chapter. It's the sort of thing I haven't gotten to explore yet, involves some of my favorite characters, and has a pleasingly apocalyptic feel to it that I can only rarely use. This was the scene that first came to mind when I was thinking about how this AU was going to go.**

… **But that was back in mid-2019, when I first began writing this AU (yeah, it was a while ago). Some of the themes of this chapter are surprisingly relevant to events that have elapsed since then. Ah well, this wouldn't be the first time my stories have pre-empted real life stuff by pure chance, it's bound to happen occasionally.**

* * *

The island was small, wreathed in fog, and decidedly damp, all the more gloomy for the dark storm clouds blocking out the sky. Spring had come, but not to this part of the world, not yet, and those huddled in taverns and cabins across the lumpy, bedraggled landscape knew it would not be arriving soon.

Ember walked alone, the fog billowing oddly behind him, giving him a spectral appearance to any who might be looking. His human form was a large Viking at the moment, but even so it displaced far too much fog, forcing it wide and far behind him, leaving an empty patch in his wake…

A patch that was coincidentally the same size and shape as a Fury might be, one walking with her nose to his back and her tail curled inward to minimize her obvious shape. She was camouflaged, but that didn't do as much as it should on this island.

Ember wished he hadn't brought her along, but he'd had little choice. Storm and Second could not come, the island offered absolutely no cover, and he needed someone with him. Someone pure of heart, to ensure he did not cross too many lines.

They approached the island's numerous docks, all eerily empty except for two. A ship was pulling away, sailing low in the water, and another was preparing to leave.

The ship leaving would meet with an accident once it was far enough away so as to be out of all of this. Storm and Second would eagerly ensure it lost its cargo, if not more, before it ever reached another island. That ship was not important. It didn't have the right insignia.

The ship still anchored and floating high on the cold waves, on the other hand, _did_ have the insignia he sought, and he smiled grimly. Those insignia were exceedingly rare as of late, and this one had come from the right general direction.

If he was lucky, his prey would be on board, or someone would know where to find him. If he was unlucky, this would be just another hunter ship, one of the few left.

Either way, his path was the same. He stepped onto the creaky wooden boards of the dock with confidence, and ignored the subtle groaning of that same board under Pearl's far more stealthy paws.

"Oy!" one of the men on the ship yelled, spotting him. "What's yer business?"

"Finding hunters!" Ember yelled back in the gruff voice this body possessed. "Where is everybody?" He felt no need to elaborate on who he meant.

The first blow to Viggo's empire had been Drago's forces arriving and fighting a bloody battle. Then, ships had begun disappearing. Now…

Now, Viggo's hunters were a rare sight. This island had once served as the first or last stopping point, depending on whether one was coming or going from Viggo's domain, his island of commerce. That island was empty now.

"Missing, dead, or gone," the hunter replied, stomping out onto the deck. "Your story?"

"Lost my ship a long while back, months ago," Ember lied. "Been taking passage on every ship goin' in the right direction ever since. Wha's goin' on?"

"Madness," the hunter said soberly. "Further than that, you'd have to ask Viggo."

Ember held in a sadistic grin. "I'll do that, if yer goin' his way."

O-O-O-O-O

The wind howled through the twisted rocks of the sea stack outpost, moaning a mournful dirge to the chaotic skies, clouds blowing past as if fleeing something, the sun shining one moment and gone the next. The ocean was restless, throwing huge waves against the sea stack, the sturdy wooden construction balanced around and atop it, and the island in the distance.

Viggo Grimborn sat at a large table, staring over the map spread across it to look out the slatted window across from him. Staring at the clouds and the waves.

He knew he was wasting time, but there was nothing appealing about the map in front of him or the many little markers on it. There had been nothing appealing for weeks now, and the weeks prior to those had been filled with careful planning and intelligent ploys that had all come to nothing.

It was hard to be enthusiastic when the gods had declared the game over and begun clearing the board of his pieces.

He knew it was childish to complain about fairness, but he felt the urge all the same. The game had been _won_ , a badly mishandled assault repelled in fittingly bloody fashion, and the player on the other side of the board soundly defeated. Drago was dead somewhere beneath the waves, and his empire no more. Now was supposed to be the domination, the mopping up and rapid expansion and new challenges. But that was not happening, had not happened. Would not happen.

He pulled his gaze from the window and leaned forward, placing his hands on the map that depicted the ocean and islands for months of sailing in every direction. There were places he wanted to conquer depicted beneath his hands, islands of Vikings and dragons and who knew what else. Islands with mysteries, rumors, downright lies or insane truths to be sought out and turned to his own ends.

He still wanted to go to each and every one, to conquer and interrogate and learn and exploit. Lacking a player on the other side of the board was not actually an issue; he could play against the board itself. There were games like that, even if they were not quite so thrilling. The thrill came from finding out what the world had to offer.

His finger idly traced a small scatter of islands off to one side of the map. This archipelago, for instance, was the source of new rumors, whispers of a young woman leading an island of Vikings who had found some trick, learned some secret, and domesticated dragons. That island was even now beginning to flex its new power, and from what his information gatherers had heard, was doing so quite effectively. Things like that held promise; in time, that woman might even be his next opponent. But for that to happen, there had to be a game to play, and the gods had decided against it.

He stood, pushing his chair back and abandoning the map. It was useless; his markers had all been cleared off, one by one, over the last few months. What good were distant secrets and future opponents when there was no force to use against them, no power, no escape?

A knock came at the hatch that led up into this topmost chamber. It rapped three times, and then twice, and then three more, and in the midst of that knocking he could hear a faint muttering.

It was all part of the same passcode, even the muttering, though only the noise was important, not the contents, so he slid back the heavy bolt blocking the hatch and his brother's bald head emerged.

"What news?" he asked, hiding his weariness. Ryker was optimistic about their situation. Optimism was the feeling fools clung to when things were going bad, so it was no surprise Ryker felt it now.

"The ship returned!" Ryker exclaimed, clearly expecting a positive response.

Viggo frowned at him. "You were not so foolish as to let them past the quarantine?"

"O' course not," Ryker replied, too excited to be annoyed. He seemed almost childish in that respect, though it would take someone very familiar with him to see anything child-like in his rough features and cruel eyes. "Bu' they're all there, and they say nothin' 'appened to 'em. We've got a way out."

"We _would_ have a way out, if we were leaving," Viggo corrected. "If they pass the next three days without showing any symptoms, set them to fishing in the waters around here." There was plenty of water stockpiled down at the base of the sea stack, and enough crudely constructed guard barracks that the sailors could find respite here; this was one of the larger sea stack outposts.

"We're not gonna leave?" Ryker growled, his enthusiasm fading. "Viggo, the island-"

"Is empty and contaminated," he cut in, tired of his brother's stupidity. "You know it as well as I do. It was only my foresight in leaving before those ships put in that has saved us so far." Nobody would be setting foot on the island that had been the crown jewel of his growing empire. It lay abandoned in the distance, visible out the window behind him.

"There's gold there, and maybe some dragons, and supplies," Ryker argued, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. "We gotta start somewhere."

Viggo held in a small laugh at that; his brother had absolutely no right to say 'we'. That was one positive thing this sudden, devastating plague had brought, interfering with Ryker's betrayal and then preventing him from going through with it. He was now once again as loyal as ever, lacking the brainpower to rebuild anything worth having on his own, and for once possessing the self-awareness necessary to admit that and not strike out on his own anyway.

"We're not going back there," he continued, pacing over to the window and looking out at his silent, empty island. "The food will be contaminated, the dragons dead, the gold long gone. My thinking has kept us alive this long. Do not start disputing it now." The island had been dealt a death knell long before he fled it; missing ships meant missing business, and people left in droves once they realized business was not going to recover. They had taken their gold with them.

"So, what, we're going to live here?" Ryker waved a large hand at the small wooden room. "We can't live on fish and water, and the water's gonna run out eventually. The men'll desert, and then someone'll bring a small army here jus' to spite you."

"I am aware of the difficulties." He had agonized over them for days on end. "But we must trust that the same plague that has struck our forces is working its way across all those who would come hunting, too." It was an insidious, unknowable thing, one with no signs and no traces left behind aside from the black ash.

"And we don' know for sure there even is a plague," Ryker objected. "It migh' be somethin' else."

"What else?" Viggo demanded. "You know the facts as well as I do. Four months ago, our ships stopped coming back. Later, we started hearing about them being found, empty of anything but death and black ash. Two months ago, my best security measures went into effect, and we began getting more reports of black dust and our own men turning on each other without reason. One month ago, rumor reached the island, and the exodus started." Such simple facts, but they ruled out every other explanation he could fathom.

"There were bodies, and word of Night Furies attacking ships," his brother persisted.

"Yes, that is where it started." He suspected the Night Furies had been diseased, and had spread it to the survivors of their frenzied attacks, of which there had been more than enough to spread it far too widely and quickly to be stopped. Those dragons would be dead now, which was supported by the recent lack of anything but the ash.

"Or they're the cause," his brother persisted. "A stealth campaign, men striking from the shadows, impersonating our troops, turning them on each other-"

"And the black ash?" The reports on that were garbled, but all agreed that it struck almost supernaturally, men simply disintegrating. Viggo did not consider the study of the body to be his strongest field, but he knew that spoke of some horrific illness. If he had not feared for his life and holed up here before it reached the cauldron of people that was his island, he might have begun researching diseases and their cures. But there were no books here, no resources, and he did not dare leave.

"Black magic, trickery, it doesn't matter," Ryker said dismissively. "The point is, there's no sickness, just a new enemy."

"No, that's not it." He might have believed it, but the reports were too consistent and too perfect. He knew the way each of his top informants wrote, how they spoke, what they thought was important, and it was nigh on impossible that anyone could imitate each and every one of them simultaneously without tripping up. He didn't doubt the truth of their words, and their words spoke of something too unstoppable to be a trick.

"There's _nothin'_ out there," was the stubborn rejoinder his brother came up with.

"There is a disease that drives men mad with sudden violence and rots their insides until they are nothing but hollow cases of ash," Viggo said bluntly. "It came about however all diseases come about, and was spread to our fleet by the infected Night Furies, who showed the same traits of sudden violence and madness in attacking ship after ship without growing bored. They have undoubtedly long since succumbed. There _is_ a disease, it is the only explanation that perfectly fits the facts. As such, we will not be leaving. Not if you value your life."

That seemed to get through to Ryker, who slumped, his powerful frame listing like an unstable building, or a ship that was taking on water on one side. "It's not fair. Odin didn' have it ou' for us before. And it _is_ jus' us, because accordin' to the crew the ports they've visited are all untouched."

"That is odd," Viggo admitted, "but it only points to another aspect of the disease. It may be that close contact with dragons makes one vulnerable. The average fisherman will have none of that, while every one of our men will have much of it. Our business is built around them."

"Then 'ow do you explain our contact who works for tha' Collector tellin' us she's goin' about things as normal, 'er thugs all untouched?"

"This is news to me." He let more than a hint of suspicion show through in his voice. If Ryker was keeping things from him… Well, he'd learn that any feelings of familial affection had been discarded long ago.

"News to me, too," Ryker explained. "Jus' heard it from them."

Viggo turned away, looking down at his map once more, his mind spinning through the implications. "Her people are like ours, so by logic they cannot be immune unless she is doing something they are not. They still buy dragons?"

"Tha's how our men got rid o' their cargo before comin' here."

"So, it is not just staying away from dragons. A normal assortment of species?"

"One Nadder, two Timberjacks, and a barrel o' Terrors."

"Normal enough, and it is spreading without Night Furies now, so while they may be the cause, they are not the method by which it strikes us now." That ruled out the obvious. "The likelihood her people just happen to be immune is nonexistent, so she must be doing _something_ differently, and going by her careful nature that something is intentional else she would shy away from continuing her activities while this runs its course through our ranks."

"I say _she_ is the one behind this," Ryker gritted. "We oughta hunt 'er down."

"Yes, though not for revenge," he agreed, still thinking. "If she has a protection or cure, we need to know what it is, and we have precious little to bargain with, so it must be by force." He had not in the past felt the need to unmask one of his most consistent, profitable patrons, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Her operations, once he found them, could then be co-opted, which would help rebuild their empire all the faster…

"That is what we will do," he announced, turning and facing his brother. "We will hunt down the Collector. It's worth the risk." Now that there was a course of action better than 'flee the area and hope it goes away', he was willing to leave.

"Aye, I'll…" Ryker trailed off, his face contorting. "'Ear that?"

Viggo tilted his head, trying to discern what had his usually focused brother distracted in a time of such importance. He heard the distant crash of waves, a distant screaming-

Screaming. "Find out what's going on," he ordered, before thinking better of it. They needed to go down and prepare for departure anyway, and they had too few men to delegate keeping order to Ryker, who tended to injure first and ask questions once he was told he should.

He still let Ryker lead the way. Caution was what had brought them this far, and caution said to put the mass of muscle and fighting prowess between himself and whatever was going on. So, he followed his brother down the hatch, closing it above himself.

The sea stack outpost consisted of three different buildings, each connected via sturdy walkways and guide ropes. He could feel the wind on his face as he moved down the walkway, holding the guide ropes in either hand. There was a small ship docked at the base of the sea stack. Nothing seemed amiss there, though it was hard to tell in the brief time it took to get to the next building.

Ryker drew his sword and slammed the door open, ready for anything, but there was nobody inside. They continued to make their way down, and were soon doing the same thing for the bottom guard hut, which had been modified since they took up residence.

Viggo eyed the large wooden wall erected in the middle of the guardhouse with considerable displeasure. It was only this wall keeping the possibly infected men who had just arrived from spreading their disease over to him. They were not allowed past it, and it was airtight. Ryker would have had to yell from the walkway down to their ship, and they to yell back, for anything to be said between them.

But there was nobody on the safe side of the wall, so Ryker went back out to the walkway, to yell down to the ship. Viggo lingered inside the hut, away from the wind. He could see and hear Ryker from where he stood, so there was no point in going out there.

"Wha's going on down there?" Ryker boomed. The wind picked up at that very moment, carrying his words down below. The shouted reply was too quiet to make out, for either of them; Ryker's face twisted into a confused scowl.

Then they both heard another scream, and Viggo saw Ryker pale. "What was that?" he called out, now more than a little worried. When his brother was surprised or frightened, it was time to worry.

"Ge' back," Ryker gritted, pushing past Viggo to enter the guardhut and slam the door shut. "I _told_ you it wasn't a disease."

"Tell me what you saw," Viggo commanded. He couldn't apply his mind to a problem without knowing what it was.

"One o' them attacked the other, and there was ash, but there was some sort of blue fire too, and they were all fightin' one of them," Ryker reported, gripping his sword tightly and pointing it at the door. "There's something going on down there, and it's not a sickness. Remember the illusions?"

Viggo nodded thoughtfully. He did recall what Ryker was speaking of, a woman performing on their island who had almost been hung for practicing black magic. She had fled to Ryker and showed him the powder she used to cause flashes of colored fire, among other tricks, in the hopes of having him protect her.

"It's like that?" he asked skeptically. It was not impossible that he had been wrong; it happened on occasion.

"I didn't get a good look, but yes. Someone determined could scale the sea stack and get 'ere. It's not far to climb."

"So, you shut us in here," Viggo continued for his brother, speaking sarcastically, "without food or water, in the hopes that they will just go away once they've slaughtered the crew they hid among to reach us. Excellent plan. You really should know better by now." It was exactly that sort of thinking that got so many strong men killed in embarrassingly stupid predicaments, and his brother would have long ago numbered among those men if it wasn't for following him.

"Wha' do you propose?" Ryker gritted. "Yer not exactly an asset in a fight."

"I _do_ have a weapon," Viggo countered irritably. He was no liability, either. It was only his brother's Thor-given strength that made him feel superior when it came to combat. "We would do better to make our stand in the-"

A loud thump at the door cut him off, and he stared in utter disbelief. He knew those rocks, knew the climb up that had to have been made. That just didn't seem possible, and when something seemed impossible it meant there was more to be uncovered. Like the strange boy who had bent reinforced bars and escaped his island a few months back. There was more, he just didn't know what yet.

Ryker, unburdened by such convictions, was less confused. "You wanna help?" he asked hurriedly. "Open the door on three. I'll stab wha'ever's out there."

"Fine," Viggo conceded, both thinking it a good enough plan for its simplicity, and sure his brother was not in a state to follow any more complicated alternatives. He quickly went to the side of the door and put a hand on the crude handle, the heavily reinforced wood shaking and crackingunder the force.

"On three," Ryker repeated, holding his sword at chest height and preparing to run through whatever was outside. There was a heartbeat of pure silence, and then another, and Ryker shook his head, visibly dismissing the lack of noise as unimportant. "One, two-"

Viggo never got the chance to open the door. His hand disappeared in an explosion of fire and wooden shrapnel, and he fell backward, clutching the mangled, splinter-impaled mess at the end of his right arm. A blur of orange covered in surging blue flames bulled its way inside a heartbeat after the explosion, slamming into Ryker and smashing him to the ground.

Pain wasn't enough to stop Viggo from thinking; he didn't know what he was looking at, but he did know it wasn't paying him any attention. He stumbled to his feet and ran out of the guard hut, moving as quickly as he could, his sword forgotten. The howling wind almost knocked him off the bridge, but he kept moving.

A low growl of rage resounded behind him, and he looked back even as he ran. The same flame-cloaked form was stalking out of the guard hut, moving his way, slowly but surely.

Slowly. He clung to that knowledge even as he kept running, heading back to the ladder and trapdoor that would let him into the only place he could go. Whatever it was, it had to be tired or hurt or _something_ ; it would have killed him if it was not.

Climbing the ladder with a mangled hand was hard, but fear lent him speed, and he was slamming the trapdoor down almost before he knew it. He stood, panting, in the middle of the room he had brooded in for days on end, and stared down at the relatively flimsy piece of wood and metal that stood between him and a brutal death.

No, not just that. His intellect stood between him and death as well. He wasn't going to die here.

Viggo cast around the room, looking for something useful. The map and small markers atop it were irrelevant, and so was the barrel of water-

No, maybe not, he thought frantically, rushing over to the open barrel and rolling it to rest right beside the trapdoor. He didn't have time to fully reason through what was happening, but his mind's first attempt at a solution to an unnatural creature of fire was to douse it in water.

And again, he cut himself off mid-thought, another solution coming to him. That water might not be enough, but surely the ocean all around them would be. If it got through and ignored the barrel, he could try and goad it into slamming into the side of this wooden building perched atop the sea stack; it could be knocked right off, with sufficient force, and he didn't doubt there would be more than enough of that.

There, two solutions. He didn't trust either of them, but they were two ploys between himself and the end. He picked up a simple wooden beam that had been left by the far wall for his future use. He had planned on taking up whittling if they were going to be stuck much longer, but now it would do for a weapon, in lieu of his sword. He would have to wield it in his left hand, but anything was better than nothing.

A moment passed. Nothing.

Viggo found himself tensing, expecting the attack that wasn't coming, his mind racing to find other ways to exploit the _very_ little he knew. It was unnatural, a creature of blue fire, something that dealt in black ash, somehow tied to what he had been sure was a disease working its way through his empire. How else could he stop it?

A loud thump interrupted his thoughts, but not from the place he expected. There was a large head wreathed in receding flames outside the barred window, and before he could do anything, that head was pulling back and an orange, scarred limb was smashing open an entrance.

Viggo found himself unable to do anything but stare as an orange Night Fury slipped into the room, placing one paw on the table. It glared at him with cold, dead eyes that felt almost familiar, and pushed down, breaking the table with ease.

Then it burst into flames in a way Viggo knew wasn't normal for its species and _shrunk,_ its form not visible beneath the brilliant blue. When the flames receded, he had a thousand more questions, and a sinking feeling that was new, something he could not ever recall feeling before.

Ember, with his cold, desolate look still very much intact, kicked a map marker across the room with his prosthetic. It rolled into a corner, neither of them watching it.

"I have much to offer that you cannot get if I am dead," were the first words out of Viggo's mouth. He would have rejoiced at facing something that could be reasoned with, were he not in the process of attempting just that.

"No, you do not," Ember said flatly. "The only thing I want now is something none can give."

"Try me." He would do anything to live, and if this unnatural creature needed a clever plot on its behalf, he would consider that a small price.

"Raise the dead," Ember said sarcastically, a smile absolutely empty of any positive emotion flitting across his face. His nasally voice sounded positively threatening when coupled with the darkness behind his eyes. "I would _like_ you to return four lives your plotting ripped away from innocent people. But even I cannot bring people months gone back to life, not when I was not personally involved in their deaths."

Even in this moment of moral peril, Viggo heard what Ember was saying, or more precisely what he was not, and could not help himself. "You say it like you can raise the dead under the right circumstances."

"I _am_ dead," Ember retorted, again smiling that twisted, pained, mirthless smile. "I _was_ dead. And I will be, soon, but that is not so impressive."

"If I have offended the gods," Viggo offered, going out on a limb, "tell me how I might make amends." He didn't think that was quite right, but it might be the most salvageable of the many possibilities running through his mind, so he would prefer it to be the case; even if he hadn't really believed there were gods until now, lacking real evidence.

"That's not my concern," Ember said idly. "You can ask them if you get a chance. I'm no messenger." He drew a dagger from somewhere on his person, a hidden sheath, and pointed it at Viggo. "I am here for vengeance, and only that."

"For what? If I am going to die, I'd like to know why," Viggo bargained, knowing it was futile. He couldn't accept that this was the end, and the longer he kept this creature, this dark person, talking, the longer he had time to think of a way out.

"You are smart, so figure it out," Ember gritted, glaring at him. "You saw me break into this building. You remember your own actions. You even know the number, and the cause. Connect the dots."

"Night Fury, coming for me, wanting four brought back to life… The four who drowned after leaving port," Viggo concluded. It really wasn't hard to make the connection. "I was not responsible for that, though, so it must be something else." He tried to make himself sound confused. "Four dead…"

Ember tilted his head in a way that didn't seem quite human, a gesture Viggo had far more often seen on dragons. "You know, an idiot might have fallen for that."

"What, that it was not my doing?" Viggo pressed. He was not so stupid as to think continued denial made him look more innocent, but it _was_ what a truly innocent person in his place would do. "I didn't give the order, and I don't know who did. Possibly Ryker. I am unaware what dealings he and Krogan may have had, but I know he was planning to betray me, and working with the other power in the vicinity would be the logical next step. If he thought I was onto him, he may have sought to destroy the evidence. He certainly gave up on breaking away from me after that."

Ember seemed to actually consider that, though he didn't lower the dagger. Not that it mattered; Viggo knew that he wasn't fighting his way out of this unless he got a chance to slit the boy's throat without even an instant's forewarning, and even that might not work if the musings on death were any indication.

"It's possible," Ember finally conceded.

"And in lieu of evidence, you will leave me be?" Viggo asked hopefully. He despised the way he was acting, but anything to live another day.

"We have evidence," Ember countered, putting the knife away and bursting into flame. His form did not shift so much this time, lengthening but not broadening, and when the fires receded-

Ryker stood there, his body a bloody, scorched mess, fragments of the destroyed door sticking out of him. He tossed his sword to the side and stood there, unmoving.

"I… I know nothing of this kind of black magic," Viggo admitted, unsure just how caught he was, "but Ryker would lie if asked, and-"

"I am not asking him," Ryker bit out, far more eloquently than his rough voice had any right to sound. The flames returned, emerging from his bloodied palms, and when they receded Ember shook his head almost mockingly. "Not only did he not remember anything about wanting Krogan dead…" He paused, and then continued. "Every trap must have bait, and in most cases a sacrifice."

Viggo felt himself pale, and knew he had no excuse for that. There was only one play left to prolong his life, so he rushed forward, swinging the wooden post at the impossibly powerful creature out to kill him, hoping to strike some sort of lucky blow.

Ember ducked, stepped backward, and burst into flames. Viggo swung again, not caring about the fire, but the post snapped across Ember's burning form without even seeming to touch him. The windowsill blackened and smoldered as Ember slipped out, the wood bending and breaking away from his very touch.

And then he was gone. Viggo stopped at the sill, well back to avoid the small flames dancing along the wood, and looked out. There was nothing below, or above, or to any side. A faint shimmering in the air nearby, but that was just his eyes playing tricks.

It wasn't over. It couldn't be. Unless he was missing something, something-

The entire building rocked to the side, and he stumbled back, landing on the smashed table, the map tearing under his back. Another blow rocked the whole structure again almost immediately, and then it was all sliding to one side, the sound of wood snapping and grating against stone accompanying the abrupt shift in orientation. There was a moment of freefall, and then an impact.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember landed on the now empty top of the sea stack, his body aching from exertion, and walked over to the edge, leaning over to look down. The wooden structure was already mostly submerged, and sinking rapidly. A single, mangled, burnt wreck of a hand stuck out of the window, but was pulled down with the building, waves sloshing over and obscuring it.

He stood there for far longer than necessary, watching the water crash against the sea stack. A few chunks of wood floated up to the surface, but Viggo never emerged. The water was freezing cold and rough; there was absolutely no way Viggo could possibly have survived.

Still, Ember did not turn away. He couldn't, not now, not when it was finally over. Viggo had drowned, which was fitting, and his empire was gone. It was over.

There was nothing left. He had taken his revenge, and now it was done. Finally. He had come to Viggo, hurt him, and then let him plead his innocence, knowing all the while that it was false. He had even checked his claim, if only to make sure the despicable man knew his doom was fairly deserved, something he hadn't needed to do with Drago. He had done it as well as it could have been done.

Now, all that was left was to let go. He almost didn't want to, but that resistance faltered and paled, not enough to dissuade him. There was nothing left to do, no more justice or vengeance to seek, no happy family to go home to. No home to return to, not when it would be silent and empty.


	13. All That Remains - Postponed (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **through chapter 19.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The seventh entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer…**

* * *

The wind was cold, and rain was beginning to fall, fat droplets that splattered on anything they hit, disappearing in the turbulent waves or impacting the rocks of the sea stack. Pearl watched as drops of rain rolled down Ember's scales, slicking them and drawing wet, cold lines across the sensitive skin between.

Ember wasn't moving. He hadn't moved from his vigil over the water for a very long time, most of the day, and didn't seem fully aware of anything going on around him. It was clear he was suffering, wet and probably cold, and it was even more clear, at least to her, that her time was up.

A dark shape landed next to her. "I think it was appropriate that he let the miserable creature drown," Storm crowed, purring for emphasis as she dropped a single fish by Pearl's paws. She didn't quite seem to get what was extremely obvious to any who looked, and was happy with the situation.

Upon getting nothing more than a noncommittal rumble from Pearl, Storm snorted and flew up to Ember's perch on the highest point of the sea stack. "Here, you get a celebration fish too."

Ember said nothing.

"Do not ignore me, I am bringing you food," Storm growled. She tossed her head and slung the fish right at him. It hit his back and slid down like the rain, eliciting absolutely no reaction.

"Storm," Pearl called out, rising and flapping up to the top of the sea stack. "Stop," she said quietly. "Remember what the alpha of the ice nest told us?"

Storm looked at Ember's back, and the trail of slime now running down it from the fish he hadn't even reacted to. "No, not really."

Pearl groaned and waved Storm over, out of Ember's earshot. "Where's Second?"

"Still fishing for the _real_ celebration meal," Storm replied blithely. "Why?"

"I just wanted to know," Pearl sighed. "You're happy with this, right?" Even if Storm didn't remember, she could still try and do her part, and it might even be easier to convince her to do so if she didn't recall what it was.

"Yes. We are finally done avenging my parents, what is not to like?" Storm said happily. "It took way too long, but it is done now."

Pearl nodded and flicked her ears in Ember's direction.

"So?" Storm asked, oblivious. "Why did you ask?"

Pearl sighed and turned her head to stare at Ember's forlorn form. Then she looked back at Storm and narrowed her eyes.

"Fine, I will try," Storm grumbled. She stalked up to the edge, staring at the back of Ember's head as if she could see through him. "Is your personal pity party over yet?" she asked him brusquely.

Ember huffed and said nothing. His wing shoulders slumped a little further, but that was all.

Storm wasn't having that. "Hey, answer me." She sat down right beside him and stuck a wing out, thumping his side. "Are you awake?"

"You no longer need saving or protection," Ember rumbled in a low, disturbingly lifeless tone. It sounded as if he was sighing and just happened to form the escaping noise into words.

"No, but I am used to having you around now," Storm said briskly, seemingly encouraged by getting any sort of response at all. "So you do not get to disappear on me, and that includes not going all moody after a well-deserved killing."

"My last task is done," he replied, sounding for all the world as if he hadn't even heard her.

"No, it is not," Storm retorted. "You want to whine and blame yourself? Fine. Make it up to me by sticking around and acting as my personal guard. We both know I could use one of those, and Second will not cut it."

Ember said nothing, and Pearl felt a horrible sinking feeling. Storm's approach didn't stand a chance of working. She was going at it with her usual attitude and not giving Ember what he needed, whatever that might be. A sister who would truly miss him if he were gone, according to the alpha of the ice nest, but Storm wasn't that. Not quite.

"Stop ignoring me." Storm smacked him with her wing a second time, far more harshly than before. "Come on, I know you are smart enough to hear what I am really saying." Her voice fell, and she leaned forward, looking out at the water below. "I would miss you if you were gone. Stay."

Ember still didn't respond, and after a long, heart-wrenching moment of forlorn silence, Storm stood, stepping away from him. She growled and shook her head, but Pearl saw some genuine dismay in her eyes.

Storm just wasn't close enough to Ember. Not yet, and maybe not ever even if this was not the end; she was too strong, too independent, and he knew it. Pearl had known from the start that it would come down to her, somehow. If anyone could bring him back from his despair, it would be her.

She slowly walked forward, taking a long moment to consider her approach, and to channel everything she had picked up from Storm to steel herself against the weight of his grief. A heartfelt plea had gotten Storm nowhere. Ember was immovable, he needed to be shocked into a reaction of some sort. She needed to shake him out of his apathy.

"So…" she said loudly, stopping right behind him. One of Ember's ears twitched, but otherwise she got no reaction. "Storm, do you think we are done here?"

"Just about," Storm barked in return, looking at Pearl hopefully. She would play along, and lacking any other instructions, would act like her usual self. That was exactly what Pearl needed for this improvised plan.

"I guess we can start on that thing we said we would do after," Pearl said, nodding to the other female.

"What was… Oh, yes, you are going to go mutilate a dragon!" Storm crowed, somehow dredging up the ability to sound enthusiastic despite the situation. "I remember!"

"Right," Pearl growled.

Ember's shoulders twitched, the most movement she had seen from him since watching Viggo drown.

"I was thinking, we could flip him over," Storm continued, still speaking far too loudly to be ignored by anyone on the sea stack. "I would hold him down, and you could rip it out of him. _Then_ we could kill him."

"Sounds perfect," Pearl replied, though she felt sick thinking of such a thing. Doing it to Claw would be okay, but the act itself made her want to vomit, being a large step above just fighting in self defense or to save others.

"What?" Ember asked weakly, barely moving his head so he could look over his shoulder at them.

"I am going to help Pearl track down, torture, and kill someone," Storm said casually. "But I thought you did not care about us anymore."

Ember shuffled around entirely, lethargically turning his side to the edge of the sea stack. Even still, his ears and frills drooped limply, and he watched the ground between them with wide and sorrowful eyes. "Violence is not a solution to everything," he said sadly. "Not even my problems, not really…"

"I know that," Pearl responded. Ember himself was proof enough of that; killing Viggo and Drago had gotten him nothing, in the end. "But violence does solve _some_ problems. I want to do this."

"Why?" he asked, slowly bringing his gaze up to meet hers. He was deeply bothered by her desire to do such things…

As he should be. Worried for her meant _involved_ , and if she had the measure of him, that worry would soon change to something familiar. If he blamed himself for corrupting her, well, that was a problem for later.

"The one I will be harming deserves the worst that can be done to him," she growled cryptically, baiting him with a lack of details.

"Why?" he repeated, with just a hint of agitation.

"They-" Storm began, only to be cut off by a tail to the face. "Hey!"

"This is _my_ story to tell," Pearl growled, alarmed by how easily Storm had been ready to spill her most painful secrets. "Go make sure Second has not been eaten by a big fish."

Storm snarled aimlessly and took off, putting her tail to them as quickly as she could. At least she was cooperating… to an extent.

"What is this?" Ember asked again, tilting his head to look at her, though his back was hunched and he could more easily have just straightened up. There was a deep sorrow to everything about him, but it was being overwhelmed with worry, guilt, and maybe a hint of protectiveness-

No, a lot of protectiveness, she knew that. He wanted her safe, he had demonstrated that countless times in the battles against hunters, however one-sided those usually were.

"I don't like talking about it," she said honestly. "But if you want to hear…"

He nodded, a small, slow movement, still watching her with those painfully miserable eyes.

"There is a light wing named Claw," she began. It hurt to tell him of her past, but only because she didn't want him to look down on her or even pity her too much. Right now, those needs were secondary, so she ignored them. "He is alpha of the pack I came from. I was only a fledgling. One day, my Dam sent me to speak to him."

Ember growled so quietly she barely heard it. She considered that a good sign; he was already picking up that something was wrong, and what was more, he was _reacting_. After seeing how he failed to respond to Storm, that was a good sign on its own.

"I didn't like him," she whispered to him, her eyes on the rock between them. "My Dam knew that, and he knew that. But neither cared. He violated me against my will, that day. Nobody cared. Later, he took me as one of his many mates, and continued to force himself on me. He kills, and hurts, and takes many mates, and does many other bad things, and nobody stops him. Nobody stands up to him."

"He deserves to die." Ember growled. "I understand now."

"Yes," Pearl agreed. "But nobody can even scratch him. Nobody tries, aside from the young males, and he kills them when they do. He hurt me, over and over again, for moon-cycles on end," and here she began to whine from dredging up the memories, "and only two people helped me stand it, my only friend and one of his daughters, and they only helped me handle the pain and distracted me because nobody can _do_ anything. Everyone else told me to get used to it and stop whining-"

Ember lurched to his paws, moving abruptly and with the stiffness of prolonged motionlessness, and threw a wing over her shivering body, pulling her close without any warning. She looked up at him, and his eyes were blazing, filled with anger she knew wasn't directed at her. They were also still tired and heavy with grief, but there was _life_ there where previously there had been none.

He looked down at her. She saw pity in his gaze... and maybe something more, but that was probably just her being fanciful in an overwhelming muddle of pain, empathy, and relief.

"I don't want you to think I am as helpless now as I was then," she whispered. "Storm and I are going back there to fix things. But I would really, _really_ appreciate it if you could come with us for that. I helped you with this. Can you help me? Please?" She didn't care that it didn't make sense to ask for him to come; the bravado about mutilating and killing Claw had been just that, not real no matter what Storm thought of the matter. This was her solution, another way to keep Ember going.

"Was that why you came with us?" Ember murmured, holding her close.

"No," Pearl said truthfully, "I just wanted to be with you."

"With Storm?" Ember asked. "You wanted to be like her…"

"With you," she repeated, knowing she couldn't push it any further quite yet, but subtly leaning into his chest. "Will you help?"

"What would you have me do?" he rumbled.

"I don't know how to fight," she replied quietly. "And I don't want it to be a close fight. I was going to _try_ and learn from Storm, but I would be much happier letting you do it."

"He hurt you?" Ember asked tentatively, as if seeking additional justification.

"He violated me, and laughed when I cried out in pain, and did it over and over again," Pearl growled, hiding her face in his chest. "For moon-cycles. When I was a fledgling, when I was an adult, whenever he wanted once I was one of his, and I never wanted to be one of his at all."

"I'll kill him," Ember promised, his voice carrying more than a hint of rage.

"I just want him gone," she admitted. "I think it would be better if you did it." Storm might be disappointed, but she would just have to deal with it; keeping Ember going was worth sacrificing a personal vengeance, she didn't care so much whether she got to tear Claw's vitals out personally.

"I will do it," he agreed. "It is a long journey?"

"A few moon-cycles of flying, but I know the way." She straightened, taking a deep breath, and looked up at him. "Please, don't see me as a fledgling in need of protecting." That was a big part of why she had never volunteered any of this information before. She wasn't not anymore, and having him see her as someone to protect and pity would just drive them further from the relationship she wanted to have.

"What should I see?" he asked.

"Someone with a bad past, who you are helping to move on," she said, trying to be subtle. "A mature female who is learning to be strong and stand up for herself."

"I already see that," he murmured.

"Thank you." She leaned into his embrace, recognizing that it had been given out of pity, but also noticing that he hadn't withdrawn it. Maybe her optimism was getting the better of her, he was still broken, and he still needed help, but maybe he was beginning to heal.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl led the way over water and over land, the weight of responsibility heavy on her heart, if not her wings, which propelled her toward the end of her stop-gap measures far quicker than she might have liked. She followed the coastline for the most part, both for practical reasons and to drag out the trip, but even then the steady beat of her wings made her anxious, an indication that no matter what she did, time was passing.

Every so often, that anxiety formed into something solid, and she drifted back, pointing the way and falling back into the group, though that tended to take them off course more than she liked, lacking any way to lead them directly where she wanted.

On one such day, only a few days out from the death of the last No-scaled-not-prey they had come to kill, she drifted close to Ember, and struck up a conversation.

"How much do you know about this area?" she asked, looking around at the trackless ocean and deserted islands, and inwardly cringing at her awkward opening.

"Do you need assistance with something?" Ember asked dully. "I don't know much of anything. This is not a range I have flown in the past. I think we will be around where I found you in a few days, and anything past that is new to me." He was not so lifeless as he had been back when she first met him, but there was still a darkness she wanted to rip out of his voice and kill. It made her _mad,_ sometimes, to hear such a broken thing in him, and she was glad they had killed those responsible.

When she thought like that, she felt how Storm must feel all the time, and it didn't make her feel better. So, she pushed that anger away and focused on trying to coax Ember out of his depression, which _would_ make her feel good if she succeeded. "I know the coastlines and direction we need to go, but I was wondering if you had anything to add. What should I be looking for while we travel?"

"The same things we looked for when we were flying all over hunting ships," Ember rumbled. "Sources of water, signs of life, No-scaled-not-prey and dragon alike, and clouds that might mean bad weather."

"I don't know much about any of that except clouds," she admitted. "I only know clouds because I slept outside… most of the time." She had gotten good at knowing what nights would be wet just by how the clouds moved and how the wind felt, but then she had been made to move to the caverns…

Pearl shivered despite herself, not liking that memory at all, and Ember noticed. His eyes narrowed, just a little, and he flew closer to her. "Tell me about it," he requested.

"I don't really like talking about it," she said reluctantly, her need to draw him out of his depression clashing with her desire to not think about Claw. "Maybe just certain things?" she offered.

"Whatever you feel comfortable with," Ember agreed.

What did she feel comfortable with? Her Dam and Sire were out, they were not good memories, the same obviously applied to Claw, and even Lily was associated with her time under him…

"My friend's name was Crystal," she said, blurting out the first happy memory that came to mind. "I mean, it still is, she is still there. We played as fledglings, she was fun, and she…" She trailed off short of mentioning Crystal's romance with Granite, remembering that he was dead.

"She what?" Ember asked gently.

"She was great," Pearl hedged, deciding to mention Granite anyway. She wasn't going to let bad memories not even directly connected to him stop her from speaking. "She helped me with a lot of things, but when we got older, I got to give her advice about the male she liked." Not that she had been qualified to give any sort of advice, but Crystal had asked anyway, and it had been a nice distraction from her Dam's designs for her.

"Who was that?" Ember followed up.

"Granite. He... was nice." She hadn't spent nearly any time with him, mostly thanks to her Dam's extremely negative reaction to hearing of her spending _any_ time with males aside from Claw, but she had gotten that impression almost immediately.

"Was nice?" Ember pressed.

"Claw," Pearl whined. "Granite challenged, and Claw killed him."

"He is going to die for all he's done," Ember said, snarling under his breath. "Him and any who stand by him. Who does?"

"What?" She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that.

"Does he truly rule alone, feared and despised by all?" Ember clarified. "I obviously don't know, but I suspect not, just because that sounds unlikely. Who else hurt you? Who helped him?"

"Nobody," she said immediately. Then she actually thought about it. "Well… I know none of the fledglings did, and Lily _helped_ me, and nobody else knew anything was wrong…"

"They would have seen," Ember said in a low growl. "It is obvious when you are unhappy."

Pearl almost asked when he had seen her unhappy, but then she remembered that he had rescued her from near-certain death at the end of three moon-cycles of captivity. He had seen her at one of her lowest points, he _would_ know what it looked like.

"They couldn't do anything without risking his wrath," she eventually replied. "But they did not even try, or say they were sorry for me, or anything like that."

"And what about your Sire?" Ember pressed. "Your Dam? You said she pushed you to Claw, so she is obviously at fault."

Pearl shivered at the cold anger in his voice, glad it was directed at someone deserving. "My Dam is in charge, and my Sire never stood up to her."

"Do they deserve punishment for what they did to you?" Ember asked.

"I don't know what I want to happen to her," she rumbled. "Nothing. I just want her to leave me alone." That would be enough. She had escaped her Dam's grasp, and _not_ falling back into it was all she needed.

"If that's what you want," Ember conceded. "Is there anyone else who will need to be dealt with to make the pack safe?"

"I don't know… I'll tell you when we get there," she decided. A glimmer of an idea was occuring to her, and she didn't want to commit to anything before she knew what it was. A real, good idea to solve her bigger problems was important, and she didn't want to mess it up.

"Okay," Ember rumbled, slowly drifting away from her. Pearl sighed, realizing that her desire to keep her options open had just ended their conversation. She had hoped for something more.

O-O-O-O-O

Later that day, when they had all set down on an island hilltop to rest for the night, Pearl felt uncomfortable.

At first, she couldn't tell why; nothing unusual was around. The island was a bare slope of sand and weakly-rooted grass, providing no cover at all, and thus hiding nothing. The only other people around were Ember, Storm, and Second, and Ember was even now settling down in a haphazardly-pawed hollow in the sand.

Pearl turned away from him, her back prickling with the feeling of unseen eyes watching her, and made eye contact with Storm.

Storm nodded toward the shore. Second was pawing at something in the surf, but other than that, there was nothing.

Pearl shrugged and turned back around. Storm had seen nothing. What-

"Just get over here!" Storm hissed.

"Oh!" Pearl exclaimed, feeling stupid. She rushed down to the shore, wondering why Storm hadn't _started_ with just asking her to come over. "What is it?"

"You need to work on your subtlety," Storm grumbled, "and that is something coming from me, of all dragons. I wanted to ask you about the plan."

"What plan?"

"Going to your pack," Storm elaborated. "You have Ember hooked for now, but once Claw is dead he will be right back where he started. What is next?"

"Next…" She had hoped to have him truly interested in her by then, or at the very least to change his mind about wanting to die. "I want him to live."

"Duh, but does that mean you are going to throw yourself at him after Claw?" Storm persisted. "Or is there something else?"

"I would love to hear any other ideas you have," Pearl requested, feeling that Storm wouldn't be questioning her about this without an alternative ready to offer. She could really use one right about now, as she had no idea what to do if Ember was still on his self-destructive path after killing Claw.

"Push harder in getting and keeping his attention," Storm said bluntly. "I have already told you that you have spent enough time just being around. Now is when you step it up and force him to see you in that way."

"You told me _not_ to throw myself at him," Pearl objected.

"Because you barely knew him and were just doing as you had been taught," Storm reminded her with a snort. "That is not the case now, and you need _some_ sort of plan. It is either this, or come up with another idea to shove into his head to buy more time."

"I _am_ trying to get his attention," Pearl sighed. "It feels like I am making progress, but only on occasion. But if I push harder, I will just get on his nerves!" Time, she needed time, and it never seemed that she had enough.

"There is only this last trip," Storm huffed. "What do you think will happen after he kills Claw? You need to have him before then, or some other female will shove you aside and take him."

"At least that would keep him alive…" Pearl whined.

Storm cuffed her with a wing, knocking her upside the head. "Hey! Stop giving up!"

"I was not!" Pearl glared at Storm, and after a heartbeat's indecision swung her own wing around to hit her back, incensed by the sudden, unfair violence.

"Good," Storm growled, not even trying to avoid the strike. "Now take that determination and do something useful with it."

Pearl shuffled her paws, still angry at Storm. She _would_ do something, but not what Storm wanted; that just didn't feel right. She needed a solution of some sort, an answer to the real problem, she needed to get Ember's attention and keep him alive, but she needed time. Storm had a point, there might be other females after he killed Claw, the whole pack would be…

The same idea that had tickled the back of her mind earlier came back, and this time she could see it more clearly. She purred triumphantly. "Got it."

"So go up there!" Storm nudged her toward the hilltop.

"No, not that," Pearl clarified, purring even harder at Storm's confusion. "I have an idea as to what will keep Ember going after killing Claw, if I cannot be his reason yet. They'll make him alpha." It was so simple, and with just a little pushing in the right direction, he'd accept.

"What?" Storm barked.

"He will kill Claw in single combat, that is how Claw fights his challengers," Pearl said happily. She saw Second coming up behind Storm, but she didn't care; he would need to be in on this plan too, if only so that he didn't wreck it through ignorance. "He's male, he's strong, and if they all call him alpha, he will have to do it."

"That does not solve the problem of other females throwing themselves at him," Storm huffed. "I suppose I could guard him for you for a little while, if you insist on being so slow and cautious about it. Only because I will not watch you let an opportunity slip away after moon-cycles of work on it."

"That would be great," Pearl agreed. She hadn't been thinking of that part. This was just to ensure that Ember kept going after killing Claw. The best part was that it would be permanent. All she would have to do was convince Ember that he was the only one who could lead the pack into better ways, that would keep him occupied for a long time. If he thought only he could do it, he would, to help everyone-

"That should work," Second said, startling Storm, who hadn't seen him approaching. "Alpha does get into helping people change."

"You would know," Storm scoffed dismissively. "But Pearl, I am not going to guard him forever. You still need to move faster."

"I'm trying," Pearl groaned.

"Not fast enough," Storm retorted. "I feel like I have told you this before. He still treats you like a friend, nothing more."

"More," Second interrupted. "He offers to kill for her. That is more."

"What would you know?" Storm asked caustically.

"He was asking her who else he could kill for her," Second repeated. "I do not see him asking after your old enemies, Storm."

"That is because I have hundreds, and none of them are worth his time," Storm laughed. "You and me make enemies wherever we go."

"No longer," Second muttered.

"Anyway…" Storm scowled at Second, then turned back to Pearl. "Fine, the emotionally damaged killer might have a point. Ember _did_ try to find out who else had hurt you, and ask after your past. He has never asked me what I did in between leaving and being captured."

"What _did_ you do?" Pearl asked. She was glad to hear their take on Ember's questions, but she didn't feel him wanting to kill for her was an advancement in the direction she wanted. It made her feel a little sick in the pit of her stomach, though it was probably her fault in the first place, setting him on Claw on her behalf.

"Wandered, insulted dragons, and annoyed every nest I came across," Storm said dismissively. "That is not interesting, it is just that he did not ask. He likes you, he is just so wrapped up in his own head that he does not notice. Make him notice."

"An egg might work for that," Second offered in his flat voice. "Since he cares for others, not himself."

"Not you too," Pearl groaned. "I'm not doing that." Maybe, in the future, once they were happily mated. Not now!

"Bad idea," Storm rumbled, apparently oblivious to the fact that she had suggested the same thing a few days ago, just after setting off. "Just do _something_."

"I am going to, now can we drop this?" Pearl asked desperately. She felt like they were chasing her in circles, roaring for her to fly when she could barely flap her wings. She was _trying_ , she just needed more time!

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl glared down at the bright ocean below, thinking hard. The island in the distance was memorable, a place with stacked wooden structures she had marveled at even in captivity, and was the last place her captors had stopped before meeting with the ship that held Ember and the No-scaled-not-prey alpha who was now dead and gone. She knew the island.

The question was, did she know where they had come from? It was a rainy few days, not a sign of the sun or moon prior to approaching the island, and she had been lethargic, tired and cold and unable to sleep for more than a short while at a time. She knew the place they had been before this island, another with a very odd type of tree that she would recognize in a moment, and she knew how long it had taken to get from one to the other, but the direction escaped her.

"I know where and how long it will take to get to the next place," she explained to her companions, "but not what direction. It should only be a day or two out."

"Easy," Ember rumbled reassuringly. "We split up, fly high, and go in different directions. Then we come back here, meet on one of these sea stacks, and describe the islands we saw. You will know where from that."

"That should work," Pearl agreed. "Look for islands with weird trees and no No-scaled-not-prey."

"We should not split up entirely," Storm objected, a sly grin on her face. "Second and I will check this way, you two check the other. We meet here in two days. Keep close to each other," she concluded, before diving away from them.

"Second?" Ember asked. "I would rather she not go alone, but Pearl can go after her-"

"I would rather follow Storm," Second objected. Pearl wasn't surprised in the slightest; Second was just following Storm's lead in leaving her and Ember alone.

Ember, on the other paw, was very surprised. "Really?" he asked skeptically. "You want to go with her?"

"I feel I would be of more help there, should trouble arise," Second said solemnly. "But if you command, alpha, I will go with you."

"No, that makes sense, follow her," Ember agreed. "My orders to you are to follow common sense, be back here _with her_ in two days, and protect her from danger. Everything else is up to you, she doesn't have the authority to give you orders."

"Yes, alpha," Second replied, swiftly departing in pursuit of Storm, who was wasting no time in putting distance between herself and them.

"We can go this way," Pearl offered, wondering whether she should be mad or thankful that Storm and Second had taken the first opportunity to leave her alone with Ember. On the one paw, it was a nice gesture, especially coming from them…

And on the other paw, she was going to have to make _some_ progress in these next few days, because Storm was liable to roar for a week if she didn't.

O-O-O-O-O

"Good work," Storm said brusquely as Second caught up to her. "Ember did not say you have to obey me, did he?"

"No," Second replied, gliding into a spot below her and matching her pace.

"Thought not." It was too bad, but probably for the best. She no longer wanted Second dead, not badly enough to do anything about it, and she now doubted he would actually kill himself if someone with authority ordered it, but she _would_ humiliate him in entertaining ways if she had power to do so, and he would be mad about it later. She would rather not screw up the truce they had now.

If it could be called a truce. She didn't know what it was, really. She disliked him, he disliked her, but not really. He was quick to point out whenever she was acting like his terrible brother, and she was quick to mock him for anything stupid he did. They argued every so often, roared and growled at each other… None of which was taken to heart. Neither of them respected the other enough to be bothered by insults.

It wasn't a truce, if truce meant no fighting. She just did not care enough to try and drive him away, not when Ember was so adamant about teaching him better. Not when she could rely on him to brutally expose every flaw she had inherited. She did not _like_ having it thrown in her face every so often, it hurt, but she deserved to hurt.

It was not like she could ever make up for what those traits had gotten her. Herb, her Sire in all that really mattered, was dead, and she could not apologize and mend what she had broken. Like Second, the pains she had given and things she had done could not be fixed or taken back. The dead didn't accept apologies, and she was responsible for the heartbreak of one parent, and the demise of both.

She didn't like herself all that much, knowing that. So, the obvious person to hate and spite was herself, and she would do so by tearing out every last vestige of the one who had physically Sired her. Second was invaluable simply because he could identify those parts of herself and help her tear them out by giving her a target.

Paradoxically, removing all traces of Third probably meant she would have to remove her tendency to hold grudges, the same tendency fueling her resolve to do exactly that… But she didn't care, and when she found herself thinking too hard about it, that was a sign that she needed to think about something else. She would rip Third out of herself, Second would help, and that was that.

"Fly faster," Second called up to her. "We will never find anything at this pace."

"You fly faster first," Storm retorted. "You are the slow one." So what if she had slowed down to recover from her all-out pace earlier? Second was slower than her, that was obvious enough. If he was faster, he would have taken charge…

Or maybe not. He was probably letting her lead. He tended to let _anyone_ else take charge if that was at all feasible. Ember hadn't told him to obey her as a rule, but he would so long as he didn't mind her ideas.

Second was trying to be better in one way, and she in another. He relied on Ember much as she relied on him. Then there was Pearl, who was relying on her to grow a spine, and Ember, who was unknowingly dependent on Pearl in turn to give him a reason to live…

Storm snorted in amusement at the stupid, never-ending circle they had somehow flown as a group. Somehow, they were getting somewhere while all following each others' tails. Where, she didn't really know past the place they were going now, but somewhere all the same.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl stared down at the strange trees she remembered, and wondered if Storm had planned this too. It was just too perfectly in line with the other female's motives.

"Well… That was quick." Ember pawed at one of the trees. "This is a nice island, too. You know where we will be going from here?"

"Along a curving coastline, then cutting across, then straight," Pearl recounted, thinking of the path her captors had taken. It was easier to remember the closer they got to the valley; in the beginning, she had the presence of mind to try and remember the path for when she broke free. That had its own problem, as she had begun to wonder why she wanted to go back if she ever got free, which was probably why she had stopped paying so much attention eventually, but it was helpful now.

"Sounds good…" Ember turned, abandoning the tree in favor of looking out at the ocean. "Do you want to go back to the sea stack now, or wait until morning?"

"Wait," Pearl said immediately. They would be alone either way, but she would rather sleep on this island than a tiny sea stack.

"Sounds good," Ember agreed. "I'll go fishing, if you could find a place for us to sleep?"

"No, let's go together," Pearl offered. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it now, not later. She knew well enough what procrastinating would lead to.

As they flew over the ocean, she made sure to fly close to him.

"You know," she started, just saying what came to mind, "I have been thinking. You asked me what I want to happen to my Sire and Dam." It wasn't even close to the most romantic thing she could start with, but she thought she could lead the conversation toward romance quickly enough from there, and it was an important subject to address regardless.

"Have you decided on something?" Ember asked, looking up from his examination of the water below them. "Whatever it is, I will help or do it for you, if you want."

Pearl took that as encouragement; Storm and Second were right, he was not like this with either of them. "I don't want them dead," she explained. "I don't want you to even acknowledge them. If my Dam talks to you or me or Storm or even Second, we act like we don't hear her at all, and we don't let up unless she goes crazy and attacks somebody."

"Why?" Ember asked curiously.

"Because she never listened to me," Pearl said sadly. "Neither of them did, and she is so used to making me listen to her and do as she says. I want her to feel what it is like to never be heard, no matter what she says." It would sting even more coming from Ember, who would be their alpha, but she hadn't brought that up yet. Another thing to discuss if the moment came.

"I can do that," Ember rumbled reassuringly. "I like it, if that is truly what you want."

"It is." Among other things. She'd be happiest to never see her Dam or Sire again, but barring that, ignoring them for the rest of her life would be revenge enough. She wanted to move on. She wanted Ember to move on, too, if only she could make him see things in the right way.

"My Dam told me what to do in every situation," Pearl continued, weaving her way toward the thing she really wanted to get Ember talking about. "What to say, how to act, what males to be interested in…"

"I know a little of what that feels like, but not nearly as bad as- Oh, hold that thought." Ember fired at the sea and dove, departing just like that.

Pearl growled in frustration. She had been so close to something meaningful! She wasn't going to let him get away with abandoning that line of thought, even if it was for an admittedly large school of fish, many of which were being brought up. She dove to gather her share, and plotted her next move.

Talking, she decided on her way up, her mouth blocked by fish, was not enough on its own. She would mix in some other things, too.

The moment they landed on the shore by the trees, she acted, landing right next to him and dropping her fish in front of him. "Want one?" she offered innocently, brushing her side against him.

Much to her surprise, he didn't move away for a long moment. When he did, he didn't look her in the eye, instead opting to drop his fish next to hers. "We can share?" he offered.

"Sure," she decided, leaning in front of him to take one of his, once again brushing him, and this time with a better view of his face.

He closed his eyes and sighed. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, but it didn't seem like an annoyed or frustrated sigh, so she decided to interpret it as another very promising sign that she was on the right track. She hadn't gotten that much of a reaction with anything since Storm had warned her against throwing herself at him all those moons ago. Maybe she had swung too far to the other side of things since then.

"Well?" she prompted, stepping away to consider her next move, swallowing her fish as she thought. After eating, probably. She still fully intended to continue that conversation, and they would have to sleep somewhere… And she certainly didn't intend to let the answer to that be that they were sleeping separately.

"Fish. Right." He took one for himself, and then another, avoiding her gaze all the while. Yes, she was definitely on to something.

"I was wondering," she said after she had eaten her fill, "do you prefer sleeping on the shore or under the trees?"

"Under the trees, we would be obvious on the shore," he immediately replied. "I do not think anyone would notice us, but sleeping out in the open when we don't have to is dangerous."

"That's not really what I meant. Assuming we're safe either way, which do you prefer?" she elaborated.

"Under the trees, still," he said. "In case it rains. I like the rain, but not being woken in the middle of the night by it."

"Agreed," Pearl said, remembering many rainy nights on her family rock. Even with the wings of her Dam and Sire, it was still cold and wet, and her Dam tended to growl under her breath, annoyed, all night. Even when asleep, which now that she thought about it was almost impressive.

"But for tonight, I will stand watch while you sleep," he offered. "We don't know exactly what is around, and we do not have Second randomly stalking the area because he feels like it."

"He does that?" Pearl asked, surprised. She hadn't known about that at all!

"Yes, every night, but I think it is because he is not used to sleeping without interruption," Ember explained. "Or something like that. He already sleeps on his own when possible, so it isn't noticeable, but he told me when I asked if he would stand watch."

"That's kind of creepy," Pearl complained. "He just walks around while we're asleep?"

"It's not that creepy since he is protecting us… But yes." Ember shrugged his wing shoulders. "I didn't see any reason to make him stop, but if it really bothers you I can when we meet up with them."

"No, you don't have to." She didn't want to be the complainer who shut down an unstable dragon's method of coping, or demonstrating his loyalty, or whatever he thought he was doing. "But thank you for offering. You always think of me." She wasn't totally happy with that awkward hint, but it was the best she could come up with.

Ember nodded and finished off the last of the fish. "So, tonight's watch. You settle down somewhere, and I will be around. We can switch off around midnight."

Pearl couldn't help but see the obvious, mostly because it was the exact opposite of what Storm had arranged. "Surely we should both get a full night's rest," she countered. "We can sleep in the forest, where nobody would ever find us, if there is even anyone around."

"Or… I guess you are right." Ember shook his head. "Were you saying something earlier, before I spotted that group of fish?"

Was he _really_ trying to change the subject? Pearl wasn't sure what had changed, but Ember definitely noticed her interest in some way now; it was hard to see this as anything but him trying to change the subject. He had picked the wrong topic, if so.

"I was talking about how my Dam told me how to act and think about everything," she recalled. "I was always only destined for one male, so I never even got to _look_ at other males when she was around. She told me what I should like, and I didn't argue."

"That sounds terrible," Ember said sincerely. "You know what you like now, right? Separate from what she told you to?"

"Oh, yes," Pearl purred, staring directly at him. "But it's harder for me to guess at the other side of things. What do you like in a female, for instance?" This was probably the most forward she had ever been, but it felt right to push him now, when he was obviously noticing her efforts.

"I…" Ember looked away from her, and then back again. "I do not think I should say."

"Why not?"

"Because I… We're alone, and you're asking me what I like in a female, and dropping all sorts of hints, and I don't know what to think about all of it," he said bluntly. "A part of me wants nothing to do with _anything_ at all, and a part of me wants to run screaming, and another says to just see where you are going with it all, but I can't do that…" He trailed off, still staring at her, his eyes wide and his look conflicted. Even his ears reflected his inner turmoil, one raised and one flat against his head, while his frills all twitched erratically.

"Ignore the first part," Pearl said firmly. That was the part she wanted to rip away from him, crush, and then flame out of existence.

"It's the biggest part," Ember admitted quietly, looking down at his paws. "I just have one more thing to do…"

Pearl hoped she wasn't imagining the doubt in his voice as he said that. "Do you really? It seems to me there was just one more, saving Storm. Then another, and another, and another with Claw. What if you find another still, after this?"

"I don't want to kill any more," Ember murmured.

"It doesn't have to be killing, the pack you'll be liberating could really use a guiding paw with firm morals, for instance," Pearl blurted out. She hadn't meant to be that blunt, but at this point she was just going with the flow. "Somehow, I don't think Storm could provide that."

"No… But I could not either." Ember shook his head wildly. "I'm no leader, last time I tried to lead I lost _everyone_."

"We're still here," Pearl said, purposely misunderstanding him. "You led us through killing two evil creatures and destroying their followers, and it took moon-cycles, but we're still here." She sidled over to stand beside him, not wanting to seem like she was confronting him… Though she was, in a way.

"Not that, my family…" Ember whined sadly and inched away from her when she tried to put her wing over him. "I don't want to do that again. You be alpha, you could do it. You and Storm and Second can stay there once Claw is dead, and I can go and do no more harm."

He could go and die, he meant. "You think that will be enough?" she asked. "You'll kill Claw and leave the pack in disarray?" They weren't _really_ arguing about her people, the ones she had left. They were arguing about his future. She didn't know when the two had become so intertwined; it was probably her doing, but she had never meant to entangle them like this.

"They will recover, you told me Claw does not do much for them anyway," Ember argued.

Pearl pursued him every time he tried to inch away, unwilling to lose any more ground. She was aware that they would look ridiculous were anyone to see them, shuffling sideways across the beach as they argued, but since there was nobody around she didn't care. "They listened to Claw, they need to be taught better," she insisted. "They're like Second, just less violent and more obedient." That was saying something, given how submissive Second was, but she wanted to drive her point home.

"You and-"

"Who can fix them?" Pearl interrupted, closing the gap between them faster than he was inching away, and not-so-subtly stepping on his paws when he tried to retreat again. "Second? Not happening. Storm? They would revolt, she's a female and she's obnoxious on the best of days."

"You?" he prompted.

"They know me, and what they know isn't good," Pearl said, being brutally honest. She didn't like it, but she had thought about it already. "I'm the weak one who never decided anything for herself. Even if that has changed, they won't believe it, and I'm female. That's two strikes against me."

"What does it matter if you're female?" Ember stopped trying to pull away, staring intently.

"The alpha is male," Pearl snorted. "They will all complain and just choose a male anyway if I try to take over. You would be able to take over _easily_ , and nobody would argue."

"I'd be a foreigner who had just brutally eviscerated their last alpha," Ember countered. "They won't want me either."

"Let that decide, then," Pearl barked, inspiration striking at the moment it was most needed. "Try to take over. If they resist you at all, if they all choose someone else immediately, you can leave, but if they just let you take over, you have to stay and do it." She knew her pack, she knew how they all bowed to Claw. There was no chance anyone would resist someone who destroyed Claw with ease, as Ember would, and then called himself alpha.

"No pack would just let me do that," Ember rumbled uncertainly. He was taking her proposition seriously, at least.

But this was not the only thing she wanted to ensure he took seriously… She leaned in, putting more weight on his paws. He could easily pull them away, he was far stronger than her, but he didn't. "They're like Second, they need someone to set them straight and tell them how to act," she said quietly. "You can do that, you're the only one who can do that, and I want you around to do it."

"That isn't the only reason you want me around," Ember sighed. "Pearl, I am not going to be-"

"Forget that," Pearl growled, emulating Storm as best she could. Pushing forward and not taking no for an answer had gotten her this far, and she wasn't going to slip back into caution now. "You are the only one saying you have to give up life after some random thing is done. Just stop saying it, and look at me."

"It isn't that easy!" Ember exclaimed. "I want to, but-"

"Do you really?" Pearl hummed happily.

"I mean, a beautiful friend is throwing herself at me," Ember snorted, looking away from her. "I tried not to notice, but yes. But if I follow that, I will hurt you when I die."

"If you're trying to avoid hurting me with that, you have failed," Pearl hummed, rubbing her face against his shoulder. "I would be hurt if you die no matter what you do now."

"Well, that just makes me feel so much better," Ember groaned.

"It should," Pearl murmured.

"Look," Ember said, gently pulling his paws out from under hers and stepping away, "I'm messed up and probably not going to live very long. I appreciate what you are doing-"

"Do you?" Pearl asked, flaring her wings and arching her back. She wasn't sure whether she was trying to be seductive or intimidating, and was fairly certain she was either failing at both, or succeeding at both.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "But there are probably a thousand males out there you would be happier with!"

"Too bad for them, I already chose one," Pearl quipped.

"I can't just change how I feel," Ember groaned.

"Do you _want_ to?" Pearl asked hopefully.

"Yes!" He leaned down and put both paws over his head. "I kind of do, but I don't, and that's the problem. I don't know what I _should_ feel."

"I know what I want you to feel," Pearl offered. "I know what would be good for you… and me." She was beginning to feel bad for bringing all of this up at all. He was so conflicted, and she was only making it worse.

"I feel like there is a black mold in my heart, and you are pushing on it, trying to shove it out," Ember murmured into his paws. "But it shouldn't go, I lost them, that's all I have left of them, I deserve to keep it."

"I don't think you do, and I don't think that is all you have left," Pearl hummed. She stayed back; he had fled her touch at every opportunity, and this seemed like the wrong moment to push forward again. There was losing her caution, and then there was doing something tactless and stupid, and she felt that would be crossing the line.

"It sounds so stupid when I say it," he said. "What do you even see in me?"

"Everything I want," Pearl sighed. "You're smart and kind and strong and you don't act anything like anyone from my pack, and you need my help too, so I do not even feel like I would be depending on you for everything." She didn't _like_ that he was so heart-weary, but it was reassuring in a way, something that proved she would not always be taking from him in a relationship between them.

"Really?" He lifted one paw, uncovering a yellow eye that was already angled in her direction.

"Really." She would not be all but throwing herself at him if she didn't. "So…" she prompted.

"I can't agree to anything when I don't know what I want," he said, crushing her highest hopes with a sad sigh. "But I can say," he continued, giving rise to a whole new flock of more tentative hopes in her heart, "that you are confusing me."

"Will more confusion help?" she asked.

"I don't know. I don't know how to fix this. Maybe after dealing with your pack…"

"After taking over and correcting everyone," Pearl said.

"We will see," Ember rumbled. "Until then, just… Do not push me? It only makes me feel guilty."

"I want to help you," Pearl said, approaching him once more. She put a paw on top of his. "I'll do whatever I think helps."

"Okay… I certainly don't know what would," he admitted.

Pearl waited for a follow up, but it seemed that was all he had to say. She stared down at his conflicted yellow eye for a little while, wondering what she had accomplished. He had acknowledged her interest… Sort of. He hadn't outright denied her, but he hadn't said yes, either, and he _had_ shown her more of his core issue.

On one side, the pain and loss he had felt, and on the other… Her. She wished it was not solely her against that; he had loved his children and parents for season-cycles, and at best she could say he was merely attracted to her now.

Ember pat his tail against the sand at his side, a wordless invitation.

Pearl took him up on his offer before he had a chance to change his mind, and snuggled against his warm scales. Maybe it was not her alone against his pain. Maybe they were working together to fight it off. She hoped so.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Boy, this was a hard one too. The crux of Pearl and Ember's relationship was always going to be something like this, but Ember's problem wasn't really meant to have an easy solution, and it would be unrealistic of me to have Pearl chase after him for so long in this story without getting anywhere, so I stuck myself in a difficult place, resulting in this. Ember's mind is a muddled mess, and I'm choosing** _**not** _ **to depict it for my own sake, as well as for the story. Some part of him sees her and is definitely interested, a larger part still just wants to give up and let himself die, and in there somewhere is a bit of pre-merging Hiccup, who contributes some awkwardness even though Ember has had a mate before… Which is also probably adding to his mixed feelings. I didn't think I could do that tumultuous mix of things justice, so we only see a little of it, and that from Pearl's POV.**


	14. All That Remains - Similarities (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and some minor aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The eighth entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer…**

* * *

It was a day like any other, one filled with subtlety and just a hint of danger, another tiny step toward a future day of freedom.

Lily was tired of the small steps, she wished she could take a leap and end it, but that would simply get her killed. She had sowed dissent with two easy targets, and that was all she would do for the time being. One more small step.

But the circumstances around this particular step bothered her in the extreme, which was probably why she was so dissatisfied. A mourning Sire and Dam were easy targets, all right, and easier still when the alpha had killed the son they now mourned, the stubborn son who had refused all attempts to convince him to protect his own life and not challenge.

It was all too familiar, the feeling of one dying because she could not convince them otherwise; Root was not the first to have fallen in such a way. He joined Bone and Granite and Pyre on her conscience, one more she had failed.

And it was _her_ fault, because if she had gone faster, if she had more leverage, if Claw were more easily countered, Root would not have died. But Claw's rule was rock solid, his tree still supported by the entire forest, and there was nothing she could have done.

Such bitter thoughts occupied her as she slowly made her way past the plateau, intent on returning to Crystal to help her watch her children. She intentionally did not look up at the plateau, as she could hear Claw and his simpering females up there, enjoying the late hot-season warmth. Seeing him would just make her angrier, and she needed cold anger, not hot. Slow and steady was safe and sure, however much she hated herself for it sometimes.

However angry and absorbed in her own thoughts as she was, though, she did not miss the first hints of something amiss, the scattered barks and murmurs of surprise. Something was going on.

Lily turned and looked at the plateau, though she didn't want to, and saw Claw leaning outward, looking at something happening elsewhere in the valley. She saw his wings raise as he prepared to fly to the disturbance.

A blue bolt of fire slammed into the plateau behind him, followed almost instantly by an impact that rang out and hurt her ears. Claw had fallen off the plateau, thrown off by the blast, but Lily wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes were fixed on the seething dragon who had just landed in the scorch mark of the blast. Orange, powerful, and smoking at the nostrils, she had never seen such an obvious personification of anger before, dark and foreboding in both color and expression, littered with pale scars and brimming with rage.

His eyes were the worst, and they filled her with dread that rooted her to the ground. She had seen anger before, but never with such a tint of bleakness to it. Not broken, not entirely, or maybe healing, but bleak all the same, still suffering, and still enraged despite it.

"Claw," he snarled, stalking forward to glare at the male in question, who glared right back at him from the ground. "That is you."

"I am Claw," Claw ground out, leaping back onto the plateau. "I am alpha here, and you are-"

"Challenging," the dark dragon spat, raking his claws across the rock in a move Lily didn't understand, blunting them even as he spoke of his intent to kill. "I am challenging you."

"You are an outsider," Claw scoffed. "I do not accept your challenge."

"Too bad," the dark dragon snorted. "I'm not asking you to accept." With that, he strode forward and struck Claw in the face, driving him right back off the plateau with a single paw.

Claw snarled dangerously and leaped right back up again. The dark dragon backed up, allowing him to walk forward. "I will kill you," Claw gritted.

"Try," the dark dragon offered sarcastically, rearing up on his hind legs and baring his stomach.

Lily could tell, almost instinctively, that there was some trick coming, the dark dragon was too confident and too violent to allow Claw a free blow-

Claw leaped forward, but before his outstretched claws could get to the bare orange stomach that had tempted him, the dark dragon slammed down with his front paws, driving Claw's head into the ground and stopping him in his tracks.

It could have ended there; all the dark dragon had to do was push down, and Claw's skull would have shattered under his weight. Instead, he backed up and let Claw struggle to his paws, swaying wildly.

Only when Claw had settled into a more stable stance did the dark dragon advance, moving quickly and precisely. Claw roared in rage and possibly fear as they tangled in earnest, but his roars were cut off almost immediately as his back was driven into the plateau with a muted thump.

Again, Lily saw a way for the fight to end in Claw's death, a way the dark dragon had to see, but elected not to take. Nothing was broken, nothing important, and Claw rolled to his paws.

She could see fear in Claw's eyes, pure and unfettered by confidence or anger. He turned his back on the dark dragon and tried to run.

That was a terrible decision; Claw's opponent leaped forward and dragged wide rents down both of Claw's wings, instantly grounding him. Several light wings cried out in horror at that, though they had made no sound during the rest of the fight.

Claw, now deprived of his only real escape route, turned on the dark dragon and attacked frantically, clearly trying to turn the tide. But like the tide, fighting was futile.

Lily could not help but wince at the sickening crack of broken bones as the dark dragon bodily grabbed and slammed Claw down to the plateau, breaking him against the unyielding rock. Somehow, Claw was still weakly struggling, but one of his back paws was bent in all the wrong directions, and his chest heaved unevenly. His wings wept thin, steady trails of dark blood.

The dark dragon, the dark wing, if Lily remembered Pyre's description correctly, roughly shoved Claw onto his back, placed a paw on his stomach, and pressed down until he couldn't breathe.

In the horrified silence, Claw's futile struggle for air could clearly be heard. The dark wing looked away from him, examining the horrified crowd with cold eyes…

Then he looked down at Claw, who was still suffocating. He grimaced and flicked his unoccupied front paw, dislodging a bit of dirt from somewhere.

"That was for Pearl," the orange male hissed. "You are alpha of nothing but your own twisted mind. If I ever see you again, or hear of you harming anyone, I will track you down and finish what I have started here." He held his paw down for a few more moments, and then let up, backing away from Claw's brutalized form.

Lily was in shock. That was the only word she could think of to describe the numb, confused lack of thought residing in her mind. All her careful planning gone, Claw bleeding and beaten by some random stranger, one who had done it for Pearl, of all people…

"There is no way out of the valley on paw!" someone called out. One of Claw's mates, horrified by all that had happened judging by her near-hysterical shriek.

"Yes there is," Lily said without even thinking about it. "He knows where it is." He had seen it when he killed Pyre.

Claw rolled off the plateau, hit the ground hard, and snarled in her general direction.

"Keep moving," the dark wing said loudly.

Lily watched as Claw departed, the pack parting well in front of him. Was he really gone, just like that? It certainly seemed so.

"I challenged, and I won so thoroughly I did not need to kill him," the dark wing declared neutrally. "That makes me your alpha. Does anyone object?"

Lily had no intention of raising her voice in complaint; not only was that exactly how Claw had always professed a change in alpha should go, she was not stupid enough to draw attention to herself. No matter what kind of alpha this male intended to be, that would be foolhardy. He could physically rend her limb from limb if she opposed him now.

What could she do, even with her anonymity? She heard the distinct lack of protest as a death knell to all of her efforts up to this point. This male was infinitely more terrifying to most of the pack. Claw, at least, had been a known evil, and to most not even obviously evil at that. This…

She shook her head, trying to think. So much had changed in an instant, she had a new alpha to uproot and usurp, but what tactics could she use? What would this new alpha do? Would he hurt and abuse her, like Claw had? Would he even notice her at all?

Would he be a savior, a kind and gentle leader who righted all the wrongs? There was no chance of that, not really, not when life was so fundamentally unfair, but it was not impossible. What was she supposed to do, aside from waiting to see what happened next, like the rest of the pack?

"So you accept me as alpha?" the orange male continued, hearing no objections from anyone. "Knowing nothing about me except that I have destroyed your previous alpha? Do none of you worry about what I might do?" He almost seemed to be searching for dissent, which worried Lily immensely.

"You are alpha," a male said nervously. "That is how it is supposed to be. We accept you."

"I suppose I _should_ be alpha, then," the dark wing decided, as if only now choosing to accept the position, though he had obviously flown in intent on taking it-

No, that was not necessarily true; Lily only barely caught herself with that assumption, remembering what the male had said about Pearl, and the rage with which he had fought. Maybe he had not meant to take the position at all? But it did not seem to be a surprise…

This, she could do. She could wait, watch, unravel the motivations and connections this new alpha had, and then begin anew her long, arduous path toward freedom. Whatever came next, be it benign or excruciating, would be endured. She would not give up, not even with the world upending all of her hard work in yet another cruel twist of fate.

Lily watched silently, another face in the crowd, unremarkable and unnoticable.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl slunk through the valley, hoping to avoid one light wing in particular. Ember was going to come in any moment now, and she wanted to get into a good position to watch him destroy Claw, but she _also_ wanted to not be noticed by her Dam, who was sitting on a rock near the plateau, alternately chatting with Claw and looking out over the valley.

Maybe it was silly to think that her Dam would notice her amidst the bustle of the valley; nobody else had really noticed her, though she had gotten a few confused looks.

But her ruby glint was distinctive and she really didn't want to be seen, so she took the long route anyway, circling around near the pond in an effort to get around to the other side of the plateau entirely-

"What the-?" a familiar voice exclaimed, and Pearl jerked to a halt as a paw pinned her tail to the ground. She turned, only to find that in addition to a paw, a fledgling was sitting on her tail and doing his best to climb upwards.

The fledgling, barely more than a hatchling by his size, forced her to be careful, and she pulled at her tail far more gently than she would have liked, shaking it from side to side to try and get him off.

"Pearl?"

Pearl looked up, remembering that there was probably a Dam attached to the paw pinning her, and saw Crystal, of all people.

"It _is_ you," Crystal barked. "What are you doing back here?" She sounded torn between relief and worry.

"Is he yours?" Try as she might, Pearl couldn't help but care more about that than catching her friend up, not when Ember was due to arrive in dramatic fashion any moment.

"Burble?" Crystal asked, glancing down at the fledgling on Pearl's tail. "Yes, and he is not moving until you lift him to your back, and _that_ is not what I want to talk about!" She stepped off of Pearl's tail and licked her across the face. "Get out of here!"

"Why?" Pearl asked, obliging Crystal's son by curling her tail. Sure enough, he let go the moment he was above her back. She could smell him now, and his scent saddened her, though she had all but known who his Sire was simply from how things were when she left.

"Claw, obviously," Crystal hissed. "Why did you return? Where is Gold?"

"I returned to fix things, and Gold is dead," Pearl explained. "You don't have to worry about Claw… Ever again." Even as she spoke, she realized that her friend _might_ have come to terms with her mate, given the fondness with which she spoke of the child they had, but the words were already out of her mouth.

The sound of an explosion and a descending flash of orange in the side of Pearl's vision cut off any follow-up she might have had. She turned to look, only to find that she didn't have a view of the plateau at all from where she stood, one of the taller rocks entirely blocking her line of sight.

"What was that?" Crystal barked.

"Somebody," Pearl responded, unsure how to proceed. "Crystal, how do you feel about Claw?"

"Now is not the time for that," Crystal barked, leaping up onto the rock blocking Pearl's view. "Who is _that_?"

"What is he doing?" Pearl asked, trying to pry Burble off of her back. He had his little claws dug under her scales, strong enough that she couldn't easily pry him loose with the end of her tail, but not strongly enough that she would be willing to risk jumping up to Crystal.

"Beating Claw into a bloody paste," Crystal breathed. "He does not stand a chance…"

"How do you feel about that?" Pearl asked bluntly, sticking her paws up onto the rock and climbing up slowly, so as to avoid dislodging the tenacious fledgling on her back. She could see the rolling orange and white tangle on the plateau now.

Crystal didn't answer, but Pearl didn't press her, too caught up in watching the beating. It was far too one-sided to call a fight; Ember was pounding Claw into the ground, bloodying him, and doing it all with a barely constrained rage she didn't quite recognize. He had fought in front of her before, but she couldn't recall ever seeing him draw it out to make it hurt.

Ember was doing this on her behalf, for her sake, and he was enraged because of what he knew Claw had done to her. He had not yet figured out his own internal struggle, but things like this convinced her that she had worked her way into his heart, slowly but surely.

"Kill him," Crystal hissed under her breath as Ember pinned Claw to the ground and pressed down on his stomach. It looked, for a long moment, that Ember was going to do exactly that.

Pearl felt nothing. Nothing important. It needed to be done, and she would be glad to see Claw gone. He deserved this. But she cared more that Ember was angry on her behalf. Claw had already hurt her and was already out of her life, and Ember was making sure of that. She wanted to look to the future, not dwell on the past.

But then Ember let up and didn't kill. Pearl watched as he exiled Claw, as Claw limped away, utterly defeated, destined to leave the valley.

"I am going to have someone make sure he really leaves," Crystal muttered. "That seems like something Lily would do."

"So you're glad he's gone?" Pearl asked. She already knew the answer, Crystal hadn't been subtle about her approval of what had happened, but she wanted to hear it for herself.

"The orange one said this was for you," Crystal said in reply, turning and effortlessly prying Burble from Pearl's back, much to her relief. The fledgling was soon set on his Dam's tail, where he seemed content to stay, occupied with holding on through every small motion. "As far as I am concerned," Crystal continued, purring at Pearl, "this was for all of us. Thank you, however you managed it."

"Glad to help," Pearl said. "But Ember would have fought Claw anyway, he helps people who need it." All she had done was let him know about Claw's existence… And told him about her past, but just knowing what Claw did to people would have been enough.

"Is that his name?" Crystal looked out at the plateau. "He _is_ fit to be alpha, right? Nobody is speaking against that happening, so he will be."

"Oh, definitely," Pearl said. She was glad to hear it was as she had expected. Ember would be alpha, as he had agreed moon-cycles ago. His future was safely tied up in managing a pack for the time being.

"It looks like we will see," Crystal murmured. "How will all of this work?"

"He'll figure something out," Pearl asserted confidently. Ember could handle any sort of problem once he set his mind on it.

"You sound like Lily," Crystal snorted. "Slurring your words."

"How is she?" Pearl asked.

"Since you left…" Crystal paused, her eyes narrowing as she thought. "Not so good," she decided after a moment. "Bad things happened to both of us, but her especially. He treated her exactly as he treated me, but rougher."

Pearl cringed at the horrible things that implied. She had wondered what had happened to Lily, in the wake of the only available male disappearing, but now the worst of her guesses was confirmed. "That's terrible," she whined.

"It is- no, it _was_ , it is over now," Crystal laughed. "Whatever else happens, Claw is gone. Or he should be. Would the new alpha mind if I asked him to set someone to make sure Claw leaves for real?"

"No, not at all," Pearl hummed. "Let's go see him together." Ember had begun speaking to those closest to the plateau, and she suspected he might need some help managing everyone, at least to start. Her Dam was nowhere to be seen, thankfully.

O-O-O-O-O

"Why are you orange?" a bold female fledgling asked. Ember considered her bold because the vast majority of her pack seemed to want nothing more than for him to not look at them, shying away and hiding behind their equally intimidated friends whenever his gaze passed over.

"It's my color," he answered kindly, wondering what in the world he was supposed to do next. He had agreed to be alpha on the condition that nobody opposed him, assuming that _surely_ there would be someone better suited to the position than him. As it turned out, that was wishful thinking.

He didn't _want_ to be in charge, but Pearl had maneuvered him into taking the position anyway, if only by combining a promise and her own plight to tug on his badly-damaged heartstrings. She had a way of getting to him.

He rumbled thoughtfully, looking out on the hesitant crowd. She had a way of getting to him, and it was hard to say whether he liked that or not. Some days he definitely did, while other days he just wanted to reach the end of his journey and sleep forever. One of those things was wrong, one was going to have to be banished…

If he was honest with himself, one of them made him feel much better than the other. Between ends and beginnings, he much preferred beginnings, and that was before comparing a beautiful, kind female to absolutely nothing at all except a lack of grief.

Pearl was trying to help him move on and be happy, and he wanted her to succeed. At the moment, she wanted him to be alpha and correct her pack, so he would do that.

Somehow. He wasn't even sure what she meant by telling him to fix them; they had bad ways of thinking, and he knew all too well that a few stern orders would not make any difference in that, but orders and authority were all he had.

His thoughts went to Berk, of all places. There were parallels; teaching a stubborn group of people to be better, despite it going against all they knew. Doing something big and, in their eyes, terrible, and facing them at the end of it. He was there again, different actions and allies, but in the same place… And with a lot more power to wield as he saw fit.

"But why?"

Ember looked down, and saw the same female fledgling as before. "Why what?"

"Why is orange your color?" she asked, craning her neck to stare up at him. She seemed delighted, though he couldn't fathom why.

"I hatched orange," he explained, hoping she would accept that. He didn't _know_ what decided the color of a dark wing, and he had no good guesses. Thorn and Herb were nowhere near his color, whereas Storm resembled both Thorn and the male who had Sired her, in equal portions. There was no pattern he could pick apart, no answer or guess he could give.

"Stop bothering the… alpha…" a male, presumably the female's Sire, pulled his daughter back from the edge of the plateau, only faltering when he noticed Ember staring down at him. "She will not bother you again," the male quavered.

"I didn't mind," Ember said honestly. He could find no more of an answer to the big questions than before, but here was a small moment, one he recognized. Not from his own experience, but from something Astrid had told him of, the first few days after the attack on the nest. A child reaching out where parents were afraid to touch, being pulled back by those same parents, and with fair reasons.

The male ushered his daughter away all the same, as if he hadn't heard Ember at all. That too was as Astrid had said; it took time and evidence to change minds, not just a few reassuring words.

But how was he supposed to give time and evidence when everyone was just standing around, anxiously waiting for him to act, and he had nothing to act on or do?

"Ember!" Pearl called out, flying down to the plateau. "Can you set someone to make sure Claw leaves for real?"

"I can do that," he agreed, grateful for a prompt. It was a good idea, one he might have come up with were he not so distracted.

"Pearl?" someone in the crowd barked.

"Hello, everyone," Pearl purred. "I'm back. Any volunteers to make _sure_ Claw leaves like he is supposed to?"

"I can do it," someone volunteered. A female leaped up onto a rock and waved her wings to get their attention. "Me."

"She's one of his mates," Pearl hissed to Ember.

"Why do you want to?" Ember asked, not directly acting on Pearl's inside information.

"Because I can?" the female offered.

" _I_ want to do it so I can laugh at him," a male offered, leaping up right next to the female and almost crowding her off the rock. "He is not alpha anymore."

"Both of you go, make sure you _only_ watch from afar," Ember ordered. He didn't particularly like either of their reasons for volunteering, but they would probably keep each other in check simply because one would rat out the other if anything happened.

"Yes alpha," they said in unison. The female jabbed at the male with her wings and shouldered him aside long enough to take off, and he quickly followed.

"That's that," Pearl murmured. "So, where-"

"Where is Gold?" a strident female's voice demanded. "Where is my son?"

Pearl wilted a little. "I don't want to just roar out that he's dead," she whispered to Ember.

"There's a lot of catching up to do," Ember announced, remembering how Stoick handled Trader Johann's yearly visits. "Pearl will answer all your questions-"

"I will?" Pearl asked as he spoke.

"-in due time," Ember concluded. "For now... " He was stuck again. What else was there to do?

"I could give you a tour of the valley?" Pearl offered. "Introduce you to my friends?"

"For now, I'll be around, getting to know this valley and its people." He could do that. Maybe by the end of it he would see a few more things that needed immediate attention, and then more… And in the long run, maybe he'd figure out what he was supposed to be doing as their alpha, what needed to be corrected. It was a start, and it was only a start because Pearl was helping.

"Thanks," he murmured, leaping off the plateau. The crowd cleared out around him so fast he wondered whether they feared he'd attack on a whim. He hoped not.

"What kind of person would I be if I abandoned you to the task I asked you to do?" Pearl purred, walking in front of him and leading him into the maze of boulders. "It's awkward, nobody knowing what to think. I'll introduce you to everyone I have even the slightest excuse to."

"Even your parents?" he rumbled.

"If we run into them, we run into them, but I will not speak to them," she said nervously. "First… There you are, Crystal!" She rushed ahead to greet a female with a young fledgling on her back.

"I had to walk," Crystal said.

"I forgot that," Pearl admitted. "Come meet Ember."

"Alpha," Crystal greeted, bowing her head. "I, for one, thank you for removing Claw, and helping my friend."

"One and the same," Ember said awkwardly. How did one break the ice with a person one had only saved by chance?

"Not one and the same, not if you are staying to care for us," Crystal said hopefully. "You are not going to follow in Claw's pawprints, right?"

"I don't intend to," Ember growled. "In what way do you mean?" He was going to be as unlike Claw as possible.

"In how you deal with the males, with mated pairs, with ceremonies, with _life_ ," Crystal rambled. As she spoke, her wing shoulders shifted, adjusting the young male fledgling lying on her back. He was lying with his chin on her neck, eyes half closed in a way that reminded Ember of Spark.

A heavy lump of grief settled like a solid object in his chest for a long moment, and then faded away. Remembering any of those he had lost did that, though it was more bearable as of late. He held in his sudden turn in mood, lest he worry Pearl or scare Crystal.

"He's not going to be the same on any of those things," Pearl said happily.

"I would like to hear it from him," Crystal said, correcting Pearl with a low rumble. "Such as… mates, to pick one example."

"Mates?" Another memory made itself known, one with far less painful connotations. Stoick again, this time arguing with Mildew on a point of Berkian law. The argument hadn't been for Mildew alone; all those who watched and listened understood where Stoick, and by extension Berk, stood on the issues Mildew raised. The same idea applied here. A leader explaining himself so that those under him knew what he thought.

"Mates in reference to how I will handle mated pairs, or those who wish to become mates?" he asked, hoping to narrow it down. "Or both."

"How you will handle the alpha's privileges in that area," Crystal clarified. "Claw had many mates, some unwilling, some happy."

Ember growled, easily finding his answer to that. "I don't like any of that," he said vehemently. "I certainly will not take multiple mates, or unwilling mates, or anything like that."

"What of those mated to Claw now?" Crystal pressed, her voice quiet and hopeful. "Will you choose among them, or let them pick one, or just throw them all out of the caves?"

"None of those," Ember answered. "I'd need more information on how things are to decide what I do with them, but I'm not going to just take one, I don't know any of them!" Pearl had told him of the attitudes of this pack, but to hear that such basic things were genuinely in question was another thing entirely. If Crystal, someone Pearl thought highly of, wasn't sure of any of this, then he could assume nobody had any more of a clue.

"That is great," Crystal purred happily. "Really great. If all of your opinions are like that, then you will be a great alpha."

"He will," Pearl agreed, happily patting her tail on Ember's front paw. She let it linger there, and glanced back at him for a long moment, her eyes hopeful.

He purred at her, not brushing her tail off or ignoring the gesture. He couldn't in good conscience promise anything to her, not when he was still so mixed up and uncertain inside, but he could at least admit that she was in his thoughts by reacting.

"Oh, I did not know," Crystal blurted out. "Pearl, I was not trying to steal him."

"I know you weren't," Pearl assured her. "You were against him just choosing one of Claw's mates, and that would take you out of the running."

Ember hadn't put two and two together, but now he knew, and with that knowledge came a new perspective. Crystal had been hoping he would set her free. If he had been of a like mind with Claw, his takeover would mean not only a change in leader, but possibly a change in mates. The idea bothered him, and he was glad he had no such intentions.

"Besides," Pearl added honestly, "he's not mine, not quite yet. We are still working things out."

"Right," Ember agreed. That was a good way to put it, but he had a feeling not everyone would accept it. If one mate of Claw's was happy to get away, that didn't mean the rest would be too. Some might be the opposite, if what Pearl had told him was correct.

"Any suggestions on who to find next?" Pearl asked Crystal.

"Lily would probably _love_ to talk to Ember about his views on what being alpha means, and how he will go about it," Crystal offered. "But I have no idea where she is. Maybe you and I could go into the caverns? I could introduce you to my hatchling, and I could drop Burble off with Honey at the same time."

"You have another one?" Pearl gasped.

"Yes," Crystal said neutrally.

"Should I congratulate you or offer my sympathy?" Ember asked. He couldn't look to memories of Stoick for advice here. Berkians usually didn't have such muddled, conflicting issues to deal with. Crystal treated her son with care, but she disliked his Sire…

Which reminded Ember of his Dam, Thorn. Another parallel, another pang of sadness. Lesser, for some reason, still present but not as debilitating.

"Both? Neither?" Crystal shrugged her shoulders, jostling her fledgling, who squeaked in surprise. "I love my children, but I did not ask for them, and I hate the one who gave them to me."

"I hope others feel as you do," Ember said solemnly. "That's commendable."

"Thanks… Alpha." Crystal shook her head. "It is strange to say that and not feel bitter resentment. A good strange."

"That's probably going to be the common way of describing all of… this." Ember gestured to himself. He liked the term. He could live up to being a good sort of strangeness. It felt achievable.

All of this felt achievable, doable, and most importantly, worth doing. Real, in a way that it hadn't yesterday.

"Lead me to the caverns," he requested, "and while we're walking let's talk more about what you expect from an alpha." He could do this, and he _wanted_ to do this, not just for Pearl, or Crystal, or anyone else here. For himself.

O-O-O-O-O

A white dragon limped through the forest. Claw moved slowly due to injury and pain, but his limping gait was not the reason he had gotten nowhere fast. He was not walking away from the valley, instead circling the mountains, and stopped often.

The sun was setting behind the trees, but Claw couldn't see it. He stopped, licked the wounds he could reach, and continued onward, heading nowhere fast.

Second trailed the defeated light wing like his own shadow, sticking close but never revealing himself. It was laughably easy, even to a dragon who almost never spent time in forests. The light wing was ridiculously at ease, and never bothered to ensure he was not being followed.

But eventually trailing Claw became boring, and Second was not getting what he was waiting for, so he changed tactics and dropped out of the trees right in front of Claw.

Claw recoiled, surprised and clearly afraid, but his inherent arrogance soon asserted itself. "Out of my way," Claw blustered, beginning to walk in a very wide arc around Second.

"You have no way," Second growled. "You are going nowhere."

"I have been exiled and am leaving," Claw retorted.

"As if you would," Second snorted. "Not when there is a usurper to kill and a rightful place to retake."

"Tell me who you are," Claw demanded. "Are you with that cheating orange light wing?" He was already trying to sow seeds of doubt. Second now understood a little better how he had managed to hold onto power. He was not entirely incompetent, just out of his league against anyone but his own repressed people.

"I have followed him here, and have tried to kill him multiple times," Second said truthfully. "I have yet to succeed, possibly because nobody is helping me."

"Then we can work together," Claw said, failing to hide his relief. "I know where the alpha sleeps, and you have the muscle. Together, we can come upon him tonight and kill him. I will make you second only to me."

Second twitched at the unintentional use of his name, but Claw didn't notice, too wrapped up in his promises to see it.

"You will be above the pack," Claw continued. "Able to take a mate, whoever you want, and maybe more later on, once it is clear you are privileged. There are no rules but the ones I make, and they will follow those. Whatever your interests, tell me and I will see them fulfilled."

"All to be alpha again," Second mused. "You know, you remind me of my brother."

"The orange one?" Claw guessed.

"No, not at all," Second rumbled. "My brother is long gone now. You two are much alike in some ways."

"Then we will make a good team," Claw enthused. "I have always been lacking a true second in command. This is perfect. We should go now, so that we can be up in the mountains by dusk." His desperation was obvious; Second could almost smell it, and he _could_ smell the light wing's blood.

"We should go," Second agreed, "but first to food. I believe I will find prey if we walk in this direction." He motioned toward the shore, and by extension the depths of the forest in front of them.

"There is nothing worth eating in this forest," Claw said as they began walking. "I would know. If there were, I would be eating that instead of just fish."

"There will be something," Second said confidently. He walked slowly, so that Claw could keep up despite his disabled paw and heaving sides. He likely had an array of broken ribs, judging by his short breaths and stifled yelps. Second knew that pain well.

"I see nothing," Claw grumbled after a while. "We are wasting time."

"You are very much like my brother was," Second rumbled in response.

"Efficient," Claw said.

"Perverted, vile, grating on me with every word," Second said neutrally. "He was a monstrosity in every way, and I never got to kill him."

Claw began backing away, as if hoping that Second would not notice. If he were thinking clearly, he might be noticing all of the little things Second had said throughout their brief conversation, all of the hints Second could not help but drop. It wouldn't matter either way.

"You, on the other paw, are right here, and my alpha was planning to kill you," Second said, before leaping and pinning Claw to the ground with a heavy paw on his tail. Claw tried to pull away, failed miserably, and stopped trying, quivering in helpless fear. He didn't even try to fight back; Ember had knocked that desire right out of him.

"My alpha is helping me be better," Second growled. "I have done terrible things, but he spared me and is helping me change. He would not like this. Maybe he thinks he can do the same with you, or maybe he had a different reason."

"So do not do it," Claw quavered.

"He will not like it, but you crossed the _one_ line I held to myself," Second snarled. His claws sprang out, digging into Claw's tail, and Claw once again tried to pull away, injuring himself in the process. "You killed and forced yourself on your own children. Maybe he feels merciful, though I doubt it, but I _definitely_ do not."

Second ripped a chunk out of Claw's tail, setting him free, and Claw did his best to run, his limping, three-legged gait entirely insufficient. He stood no chance of getting away.

"One more hunt," Second growled to himself. He had Claw's scent, and he had Storm's request. Nothing more than that, not an order, just a question she had asked upon seeing Ember let Claw go, and hearing the words of one particular female. Did Second think it would be best for Claw to die of his injuries in the forest?

He did think so. Ember might have spared Claw's life, but that was his choice, and he had never said not to pursue Claw afterward. If anyone ever found Claw's body, Second would not deny what he had done. For once, every twisted thing he knew about hunting down, torturing, and then killing would be deserved, and he would extend to Claw all the things he would Third, were he alive to be dealt with.

_**Author's Note** _ **: Yeah, Claw's going to die a horrible death. There isn't going to be any surprise twist on that ending; I elected not to show it because I know your twisted imaginations can depict worse than I can write, given who's involved, and Claw deserves the worst possible fate.**

**Also, with this chapter,** _**No Story Stands Alone** _ **as a whole is now as long as the first book of this series. Suffice to say, the stuff I have planned and ready for this anthology will be sufficient to bring it all the way to the length of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **, and beyond. I already have three unrelated pieces ready to go after this mini-series is over, and another mini-series almost ready for posting, among other things.**


	15. All That Remains - Adjustment (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **and aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: The ninth and penultimate entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer…**

* * *

Lily trailed an oblivious dragon from the shadows, as she so often did. The only difference this time was that she was trailing the new alpha, not the old one. Pearl and Crystal were there too, but she cared more about the male who had fought his way into the pack.

"This is the pond," Pearl said, presenting the large pool of water as if it was something worth seeing. "I don't know why, but it is always full except in the peak of the hot season."

"Underground water keeps it like that," Ember, the new alpha, said casually. "No-scaled-not-prey dig deep holes to get the water wherever they want it using the same idea."

"Really?" Crystal asked, looking at Ember in surprise. "So we could dig another hole on the other side of the valley, to make water available in another place?"

"Possibly, it's something to look into," Ember mused. "Does this pond often freeze over in the cold season?"

"Yes, but it is easy to melt enough to drink from," Crystal explained.

"There is always _plenty_ of snow during the cold season," Pearl added. "Water is not a huge problem, but warmth and space definitely is."

"Show me the caves," Ember requested casually, throwing his new authority around without a second thought. "I understand that they are occupied all season-cycle by some, but everyone crams in during the cold-season?"

As Ember and Pearl wandered off, Crystal lagged behind to take a drink, and Lily spotted a chance. She needed to appraise her friend of the new situation, and how it didn't differ from the old despite their new alpha's now benevolent appearance.

"Oh!" Crystal pulled back in surprise as Lily sidled up right next to her, seemingly casual, and took a small drink. "Lily, there you are!"

"Here I am," Lily agreed. "So, the new alpha."

"Yes, he is great," Crystal said, not catching the _real_ question at all. "He found Pearl out there, broke her out of captivity, and Storm too, apparently-"

"No, I don't need his life story right now," Lily interrupted. "You know we should not just let him fly in here and take over."

"But… He already has." Crystal stared at Lily as if she was talking nonsense. "And he is a good person, Pearl vouches for him and she would know."

"He flew in, brutally broke Claw, and then claimed leadership," Lily countered. "I do not know about you, but I trust my eyes more than Pearl, and I see a violent male who may be just as bad in his own ways. We need to continue working against-"

"Claw." Crystal backed away and pawed at the ground in agitation. "Lily, that was all against Claw. Claw did terrible things. _Ember_ has already said he is not going to do anything like Claw. I am not going to just keep working against the alpha like he is still the same horrible person, I _like_ Ember, and he has not done anything you or I were not planning to do as soon as we could manage it."

"So you're not with me," Lily said coldly. She was immensely disappointed by that, and it didn't speak well of her less enthusiastic supporters' response to her continued urging.

"Show me when he does something worth fighting against," Crystal said, looking away. "I hope you cannot, but if he acts like Claw despite his promises and despite Pearl, _then_ I will join you in undermining him. But not before."

"Fine, then," Lily growled. She would do it herself, without Crystal… Though it hurt to even _think_ about losing the last person who had stuck by her through the worst time of her life. Crystal would come around eventually, once she found some sort of proof…

Though the only things she had heard Ember speaking of so far were either neutral, getting to know the valley, or speculatively positive, acknowledging the problems of overcrowding and only having one pond to drink from. He had not put a paw wrong yet aside from his mauling of Claw, which _was_ deserved…

"Lily?" Crystal prompted.

Lily shook her head and didn't meet Crystal's gaze. "I'll find you the proof you want," she said quietly.

"So long as you bring me _his_ faults, not Claw's," Crystal agreed.

O-O-O-O-O

"Pearl, introduce me to our new alpha."

Pearl did not flinch, not at that painfully familiar voice and even more painful tone, commanding her obedience without a second thought for her opinion on the matter. She had been dreading this for moon-cycles, and anticipating it at the same time. That Diora had snuck up behind her made almost no difference. She had been expecting to be ambushed at the worst possible time.

This wasn't even the worst possible time, either. She ignored Diora's grating voice in favor of laying her tailfins atop Ember's back paw. "Let's go look at the dark side of the valley next," she suggested.

"Alpha!" Diora barked loudly. "You do not mind if I call you that, right? You are our new alpha, and it is a very important title."

"I don't really care for titles… Who are you?" Ember rumbled as he turned around, but he tapped his tail on Pearl's. She hoped he was signalling that he remembered his promise, though she had taken it back upon discussing how he would be alpha, and realizing that he couldn't just totally ignore even the worst of his subjects. He had instead promised to be coldly neutral to her, no matter what.

"Diora," her Dam said sweetly, or at least in a tone she thought passed for sweet. Already, her 'obedient' daughter totally ignoring her was getting on her nerves. Pearl, for her part, felt no need to turn around, instead making a show of looking around casually.

"Did you need something?" Ember asked.

"Only to find out what has happened with my daughter!" Diora exclaimed happily. "She has returned, but she has yet to even look at me! I understand, returning in the company of such a handsome male, but I would like to see her."

"You can see her from here," Ember observed dryly. "Her tail, the back of her wings, the back of her legs…"

"Yes, that may be, but I meant I want to talk to her and find out where she went, why she left, what she did while she was gone…" Diora trailed off, as if running out of things to say that didn't involve her screeching with anger.

"Well, we can ask. Pearl, do you want to talk to Diora?"

"Not at all, no," she said calmly. "So I'm not going to."

"Sounds good to me," Ember purred.

"Good?" Diora demanded, her facade of politeness falling further and further with every heartbeat. "She is _my_ daughter, I demand to talk to her, she has come home and that means she is under my authority-"

"And you are under mine?" Ember asked deceptively calmly. Pearl imagined he was glaring, though she knew him well enough to know that he could have said it with a perfectly straight face and still intimidated Diora into shutting up.

"Yes, but…" Diora trailed off.

"I consider adults to be independent," Ember said mildly. "So no, she is not under any authority of yours. She doesn't want to talk to you, so you won't bother her."

"I-"

"Let me be clear," Ember growled, lowering his voice so that those around them couldn't hear. "I know who you are and what you do, and if I find you are bothering Pearl, or any other person in this pack, I will make you regret it."

"You… She… Yes, alpha," Diora eventually stuttered. "But if she-"

"If she wishes to talk to you," Pearl said, still not looking back, "She will do so. Until then, she's going to do her best to forget you exist." She felt the need to say _something_ for herself, rather than let Ember do all the work. Not much, a huge part of this was her completely ignoring Diora, but something, just to ensure Diora knew it was her choice, she _could_ hear but just didn't care.

"At least I have one obedient daughter," Diora spat.

Pearl froze. She knew Diora was aiming that at her, and thus not referring to her. Her Dam had another daughter? An egg in the relatively short time she had been gone? It would be just like Diora to mourn for all of two days and then start over, but that destroyed all of her plans now, she couldn't let someone else suffer as she had-

"And I'd hope that daughter has no reason to decide as Pearl has," Ember said with a hint of warning, a low growl in his voice. His tail lashed violently, visible out of the corner of her eye. "I have an interest in ensuring all young ones live happy, safe lives, and I _will_ intervene if there is reason to believe they are being raised in a way that will not provide them that."

"Pearl lies, you know," Diora said, completely ignoring Ember's veiled threat in favor of her own vileness. "If she has told you things, be sure to look at them skeptically."

"The problem is, even looking at them skeptically paints you in a bad light," Ember retorted. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we are going somewhere else."

"Paints?" Diora muttered as Ember turned. She seemed too confused to follow up, which Pearl assumed was Ember's intent in throwing in a word that meant nothing, as far as she knew. It didn't even sound right.

"That was you sticking to your plan to ignore her, not freezing up, right?" Ember murmured as they walked away.

"Yes, it was," Pearl said proudly. She held no illusions, this was the start of a long test of resolve, not the end. Diora would push her until she got a reaction or gave up, and she was stubborn enough to make that a long, drawn-out process. But she was sure she could do it, even if Ember wouldn't be around next time.

"I was not taking over your vengeance?" Ember asked.

"No more than I wanted," she assured him. He had laid down the law, and she heavily suspected he would need to enforce it if she really did have a sister, but hearing Ember say he would do as much had silenced her fears on the subject. This was his pack now, and Diora was only a particularly annoying subject. "Also, you said nonsense to confuse her, right?"

"What?"

"You said something that means nothing," she reminded him. "Paints, or something like that." It was a word, or close enough to one, but she had no meaning for it.

"Oh, that is something No-scaled-not-prey can do, it's an expression. Depicts would be another word that means the same thing in this context." Ember nodded politely to a trio of gawking light wings standing on a boulder. "So, I assume the pack has no rules about confiscating mistreated fledglings?"

"None, but you make the rules now," Pearl purred. "You'll make sure she does not keep her hatchling?"

"I'll have someone watch her, get a list of bad behaviors, confront her with them, and then if she does not fix them all immediately, I'll make a big show out of taking the hatchling away," Ember rumbled. "I can't do it immediately, there has to be a process or I will look like a tyrant, but it will definitely happen. Do you want to raise her, or should I figure something else out?"

"Maybe place her with another family?" Pearl offered after thinking about it. "She would be my sister," and saying that didn't feel real, she didn't know what having a little sister was supposed to feel like, "so I should not be the one raising her, I should just be a friend."

"Diora might not be the only entirely unfit parent in this valley," Ember mused, "I will probably have to set up a whole system. The way Claw did things must have forced a lot of pairs together that wouldn't otherwise happen."

"You might have to break some pairs up, too." She wasn't looking forward to any of this happening, but at least it was another set of large, long-term problems for Ember to solve. He was so _involved_ already, and she loved the engaged light in his eyes as he spoke about setting up systems and fixing things.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily maneuvered her way into the depths of a small, tightly-packed crowd. She didn't know what was going on, all she knew was that they were a crowd of females being addressed by Ember, and that was enough for her to be interested.

"That is what I think of ceremonies and adulthood," Ember was saying, addressing the females directly. "I am not _sure_ that five season-cycles of age is enough to be truly an adult, especially when one is hatched right at the end of a season-cycle, because in that case one would _really_ only be four and a few days. It might be better to move the adulthood barrier to age six, and have one ceremony for each season."

"But what about picking mates and the season-cycle deadline?" a female near the front of the crowd asked timidly.

"Deadline?" Ember responded, tilting his head. "What deadline?"

"At the ceremony females pick the male they want to court, and the males have a season-cycle from then to accept," the female responded, gaining confidence as she spoke.

"That seems backwards," Ember rumbled. "Out in the rest of the world, there are no time limits, and certainly none on only picking those from your season-cycle. It is a mutual decision by both, whenever they feel ready to commit. We will probably do away with these deadlines and restrictions and just have ceremonies to celebrate the new adults."

Lily understood what this was now, even as the females around her burst into excited chatter. He was taking questions and explaining what he would change. This could serve as a good way to get some flaws out into the open, reasons for Crystal to come back to her way of thinking. She wanted Crystal back as soon as possible.

So, when the noise died down, she spoke into the opening, pitching her voice far higher than normal both to be heard and to obfuscate her identity. "What of the alpha's mates?"

"The alpha's mates?" Ember sighed and shook his head. "That's complicated."

Lily held in a growl, her worst fears confirmed. How could Crystal be okay with this male taking over? He was just going to take Claw's place violating them without even knowing who they were-

"Obviously," Ember continued, oblivious to her fuming in the crowd, "I could not possibly just take over where Claw left off, so all of those he left behind won't automatically be 'mine', or however you would refer to them. If there are other benefits to being one of his mates, I won't necessarily stop providing those, but they will not be my mates, they are free females who may find another mate or none as they choose."

Lily's tail fell limp in surprise.

"What if we want Claw _back_?" someone else asked. "Can we follow him?"

"Would you?" Ember replied. "Really? You can leave, I am not holding anyone to this pack, but why chase him?"

"What if we _want_ you to be our new mate?" another, far more upbeat female asked.

"That, I definitely am not allowing," Ember said firmly. "This is not an optional thing, I have no mate as of now, and I certainly will not take someone I don't know as a mate."

Lily noticed that he hadn't outright forbid any of Claw's mates from pursuing him, but she didn't have the desire to push him on that. The subject of mates just wasn't his weak spot, that was all. She would find some other flaw to present to Crystal.

"How are you going to handle challenges for the position of alpha?" she asked loudly.

"In a way that doesn't make me look like a hypocrite," Ember responded jovially, eliciting a chorus of laughter. "I want to do away with fighting for the position eventually, but for now I suppose people will say it is not fair if I take that away immediately after using it to take control myself."

"Will they still be to the death?"

Lily flinched and turned to the side to see the one who had roared close by; she recognized Cressa's voice. She caught Cressa's eye.

Her Dam grimaced, shook her head, and glared in Ember's general direction.

"No, certainly not to the death," Ember said, but Lily was no longer listening. Cressa had seemed to accept that they were… What? On the same side?

Of course, it made sense that Cressa was against Ember, she was a spiteful creature who had just lost her mate to him. Of course, she wouldn't like or support him. She might even be open to being approached about an organized group working to usurp him…

Cressa would be open to it, but Crystal would not. Lily felt sick. She backed out of the crowd, wanting some space to breathe-

And was immediately accosted by a dark wing. "Hey," a blue and grey female called out from the top of a rock. "You."

"Me," Lily growled back. She had no idea who this was, or why she was here, or why she wanted her attention.

"Why are you leaving?" the female growled. "This stuff is important, and I am sure he will have to answer the same questions ten times over as it is."

"I'm not allowed to leave?" Lily demanded.

"You are, but you are not allowed to act like you were never told what the alpha thinks later on," the dark wing retorted. "Plus, you look like you want to kill something."

"I don't want to kill anything," Lily snorted. "I'm happy. This is a great day." She even managed to make that sound convincing, at least to herself. It was what some random stranger observing would think, and it was the opinion most likely to get this abrasive female off her back.

"No love for Claw?" the female huffed. "Well, good. He deserved all he got."

"He didn't get nearly _enough_ ," Lily said vehemently.

The female opened her mouth, paused, and stared at Lily as if considering something. "You are the first I have talked to who says so," she said. "Everyone is either too scared of retribution for saying the new alpha was too lenient, or too wishy-washy, or too blindly in love with him."

"Well, not everyone was his daughter _and_ taken against their will," Lily spat. She had no idea where this dark wing stood, but her position was clearly anti-Claw and pro-Ember, so revealing her position could only garner her sympathy.

"Pearl mentioned you… Lily, right?" Storm nodded. "There is something you should see. Go check out the forest close to wherever Claw would have come down from the mountains."

"He won't be there." It had been most of a day, more than enough time for Claw to get over the mountains and deep into the forest. She had forgotten about him in the rush to learn about the new alpha.

A wave of regret washed over her, fueled with renewed, righteous anger at Claw. Why hadn't she flown along and mocked him every step of the way? Why had she missed her chances to make his defeat hurt, to take vengeance in every possible way? Just because a new threat had thoroughly displaced him and made him irrelevant?

"He won't be there," she repeated. "Will he?"

"No, but there is still something you should see," the dark wing said firmly. "Something to lighten your mood. Keep it quiet, though." She nodded toward the crowd Lily had exited. "Most of them would not like it so much. Only people like you and me can appreciate some things."

Now Lily was intrigued. Not only something a stranger thought she should see, but something to keep secret? "I'll go now," she agreed. It was not like the new alpha wouldn't be there to watch tomorrow, or the day after, or every day after _that_.

O-O-O-O-O

"I would think," Ember continued, "that a fight to submission would be enough. Winning does not necessarily mean killing." He wished he had Pearl by his side to chime in; she knew his audience far better than he did. But Pearl had gone to the waste pit and not come back, so he assumed she was sidetracked with something else. He was alone for the time being.

He was their alpha, it shouldn't be crippling to not have Pearl with him. And it wasn't, he was doing fine. Only a few people had left the crowd in front of him, and Storm was confronting them, though he could have done without that. He hoped she wasn't making them even more angry with his policies, or even just with her. She attracted trouble, and he didn't want to have to mediate too many disputes.

"Are you going to let the other males challenge you again, or let those who have lost challenge again?" one particularly sour-faced female called out, a biting challenge in her tone. "Or will you just ignore them afterward?"

"Once is enough for any one person," he said firmly. "I might allow those who have served Claw one more try, but certainly not all at once, so it would be staggered across moon-cycles." Fighting every male in the pack, one after another, was a recipe for disaster, and the one who finally beat him might have no issue with slitting his throat. He didn't want that to happen-

Ember blinked, caught up in his thoughts, and marvelled at the simple idea that he didn't want to die. Where had the idea of finishing one last task and then wasting away gone? It didn't sound appealing now, even if he assumed that nobody _really_ needed him as alpha, which was obviously untrue.

"What about vows of loyalty?" the same bitter female asked. "Will you make them all swear anew?"

"I…" An idea came to mind, and he hesitated before deciding to go with it. "Would a male please come over here? Anyone, this won't take long."

In moments, two different males crept out from between the boulders. Neither looked at all happy to be there, and one cringed even as he bowed low.

Ember spared a moment to be glad he had already beaten Claw to within an inch of his life, then got down to business. "Right here," he requested, pawing at the open space in front of him.

Two light wing males knelt, their chins to the ground, directly in front of him. He could reach out and step on their heads if he wanted-

Which had to be what Claw had done; this position was too coincidental, otherwise. He growled quietly. "No," he said. "Look up. Meet my eyes."

Once he had two fearful gazes on himself, he purred. "Names?"

"Copper," the one on the left said.

"Ivy," the one on the right added.

He knew Ivy, and was thankful his promise to Pearl had been redone to allow him to interact with her parents; this would have gotten very, very awkward if he had to pretend Ivy didn't exist. As it was, he chose to forget who Ivy was and who he was related to for the moment.

"I don't know what your positions are," Ember said. "Do you do something special for the pack? Either of you? Guarding, or fishing for more than your families, or something else the people around you don't have to do?"

"No," Ivy murmured.

"We sometimes do what the alpha says, but that is the same for all males," Copper countered. "And some of us are assigned to help his mates with their eggs or hatchlings, as he chooses."

"Good to know," Ember huffed. That sort of service was exactly what he had intended to continue, in promising that Claw's mates would still receive whatever services they were used to. "I will be asking you, and all males, to continue doing something similar to that, helping the females who have no mate to ease their burdens. Fishing, maybe watching their child, nothing more. Are you okay with that?"

Ivy looked confused, and Copper no better.

"I'm going to be redoing everything," Ember said more loudly. "In _my_ pack, there is no bowing so low your face hits the ground. Everyone will respect each other, regardless of position." He bumped his forehead on Copper's, and then Ivy in turn. "Nice to meet you. If you want to challenge me, you can later on, but for now all I ask is that you be ready to help out as needed. The males of this pack are just as important as everyone else." He knew from Pearl that Claw had subjugated all the other males, so in that at least he came prepared. There would be nothing of the sort from now on.

"Yes, alpha," Ivy said loudly, obviously amazed. He began backing away, and Ember let him go.

"Equal to the females?" Copper asked. "Really?"

"Yes, really, no better and no lesser," Ember confirmed. A small part of him was continually amazed and saddened that he had to say such simple things, though that same part also knew that this particular equality didn't quite exist elsewhere, either. It would _here_ from now on.

"Even mates?" Copper asked, speaking over a snarl from the same bitter female from before.

"Even then." He supposed Pearl's comment about maybe breaking up mated pairs was accurate; it looked like he'd be doing some of that sooner or later if this sort of incredulity was indicating a problem between this male and his mate.

"Thank you, alpha," Copper said vehemently. "I will never challenge you. You have my loyalty."

"I'm glad to hear that," Ember said kindly. Those two things were acceptable; he was going to do away with challenges, and loyalty was fine.

"Now," he called out as Copper left, "let me see a mated female, and one of Claw's former mates."

Two females from the front of the crowd came forward.

"Moss," one introduced herself. "I have a wonderful mate."

"Grass," the other said sultrily, flicking her tail suggestively. "Alpha, or Ember if I might call you that?"

"What do you do, Moss?" Ember asked. "Any responsibilities? Duties you were given to perform?"

"Oh, I do lots of little things for fun," Moss said breezily. "Watching my daughter's hatchlings for her, watching other fledglings when my friends need it, bringing fish on occasion… Lots of things."

"Would you be amiable to flying patrols, or fishing for many, or doing things as part of a group?" Ember asked. "I am going to ask the mated females to do things from time to time. There is a lot that _could_ be done to make life better."

"So long as I can handle it, count me in," Moss purred.

"Good." Ember turned to Grass, who was still swaying from side to side as if she stood in a tall wind. "Do you do anything?" he asked a little less politely. He had to treat her fairly, but attempted seduction would get no attention from him.

"I helped raise a bratty little fledgling, kept the alpha warm at night, and generally made his life more _interesting_ ," Grass purred. "I would love to keep doing those last two things."

"It's good that you helped others with their children," Ember praised, totally ignoring the innuendo. "There are a lot of Sireless fledglings, hatchlings, and maybe eggs, and everyone will need to pitch in."

"Well, I would love to pitch in with you," Grass purred.

"So," Ember said, ignoring the continued innuendo and raising a wing over Moss. "Mated."

He put his other over Grass. "Unmated, for whatever reason."

"Some of you are going to need help, others are going to give it," he declared. "Again, everyone is equal in stature, but not everyone is equal in circumstance. We're all going to work together and help each other. Right?"

"Right!" Moss roared loudly. Grass chimed in with a more half-hearted exclamation, adding her voice to Moss'-

And then the entire group of onlookers in front of him roared, everyone voicing their approval in a way that made his ears ring.

He found himself purring, glad to see such approval. He had no practice making speeches or laying down the law, and it almost certainly was not all going to go this smoothly, but this was a _great_ start.

O-O-O-O-O

The sunset was a familiar but troubling sight. Pearl sat near the pond, her tail neatly wrapped around her hind paws, and wondered where she was going to sleep.

When they were travelling, that question had had an easy answer. Wherever she wanted, preferably close to Ember. Everyone around knew what was between them, where she wanted it to go.

Here, in the valley, she couldn't count on that understanding, and she couldn't count on sleeping with Ember to be an easy thing. She didn't even know _where_ he meant to sleep. If it was in the caverns, she wouldn't be able to be with him at all. She was never sleeping in there again, at least not outside of the cold season, and maybe not even then.

Even the thought of the caverns made her shiver and glance over in their general direction. She hadn't expected such a strong reaction, but now that she was here, she had it nonetheless. Those caves held _literally_ nothing but bad memories. Not even the cold seasons as a fledgling held redeeming memories; Diora had pushed her toward Claw all the harder when everyone was close together, and she had been forced to watch from afar as the fledglings all played, male and female alike.

Sleeping in the caves wasn't an option, but the alpha always slept in the caves because that was where his mates slept. Ember _might_ not, he wasn't going to sleep with any of Claw's mates, but he might just claim an empty cave.

And even if he did sleep outside, on some unclaimed rock, sleeping with him would raise questions from _everyone_. She had been asked about whether he had a mate ten times today alone, and many of Claw's mates seemed intent on staking a claim.

But _not_ sleeping with him felt wrong, like she was giving up, and she had promised herself that she wouldn't let the pack pressure her into doing anything she didn't want to. Failing to pursue Ember counted as something she didn't want to do.

She stood and took to the sky, just as the sun sank beneath the tip of the mountains. Ember might sleep in the caves, but he might not, and she could certainly express her opinion on the subject. Even putting her own feelings aside, it would send a good message to have him sleep outside, one that said he was nothing like Claw and would take a place among the common pack members, claiming a rock no better or worse than theirs.

Ember was easily spotted, an orange blur amidst the white bodies and grey rocks of the valley. Pearl's heart sank as she noticed that he was headed directly toward the caves, but she forced herself to keep going. She wasn't setting paw inside, but he wasn't inside yet and she could still make her opinion known.

"Pearl," he said warmly as she set down on a rock directly in his path. "Where were you?"

"Getting some air," she said truthfully. She had left with the excuse of the waste pit, then gone out for a flight to clear her head. He didn't need her with him every moment of the day, that would just make her look and feel clingy. "Where are you headed?"

"The caves, to examine a few places and then politely say that I prefer the open sky," he said, shaking his head. "I would even if I did not know how many of those chambers were probably used to trap females."

Pearl felt a rush of relief and gratitude; of _course_ he would understand and feel the same way. He was empathetic and caring, he wouldn't just brush it all off and not care. "I don't ever want to step paw in there again," she said.

"Even when it gets cold?"

"There are other places, I could find a cave up in the mountains." She didn't know of any, but there had to be some. Searching for one might make a nice project for Storm when she got restless, as was almost inevitable.

"That sounds nice," Ember agreed. "Or you could dig a hole in a hill. Maybe that would work, though I don't know how bad the cold season gets around here."

"Bad," Pearl said confidently. A hole in a hill would either flood, be filled with snow driven in by the wind, or collapse under the weight of said snow. She would stick to natural caves… Though the issue of driving snow might still affect those. Maybe she would _have_ to shelter here no matter how she felt.

"For now, though, where should I go?" he asked as they walked. "I made a big deal about everyone being equal, and if there is some process to choosing rocks, and which are higher quality, I want to stick solely to the high middle of the range. Not absolutely amazing, but not terrible either, and a little above mediocre so I don't look pretentious."

"That's a lot of requirements I have no idea how to ask around for," Pearl complained. She knew very, very little about choosing a rock. Diora certainly hadn't discussed it with her, accepting no plan for the future that put her outside Claw's caves. But she _had_ ranted about how their family rock was terrible. Some of her complaints had been legitimate…

"A good rock is mostly flat, but just slanted enough that water does not pool," Pearl recalled. "You want one in the sun, for the warmth. All-day shade is only for the worst rocks, and those that are only in the sun in the middle of the day are mediocre." Their family had one of the latter.

"I do want those things," Ember admitted. "What else makes the best rocks the best?"

"Size, obviously," Pearl continued. "You want one big enough for yourself, your family, and one visitor. That's the best, knock off the visitor space for a good rock, and any crowding makes it mediocre or worse depending on the other stuff."

It took a few steps for what she had just said to catch up with her, but she cringed when she realized. Ember would hear, and reminding him how small his family was _now_ was a way to smack him in the face with his grief…

But Ember wasn't sighing, or whining, or anything else. "No visitor space," he declared happily. "That's one thing I can do without. In fact, I'd rather _not_ have that. Some privacy would be great."

"You won't get much privacy," Pearl admitted. "Not even with the best rock." That was one of the few advantages of dwelling in the caves, or in her case one of the disadvantages. "You'll also want to consider location."

"We were not done with size," Ember objected. "A rock big enough for one dragon?"

"I was hoping two," Pearl said quietly. "At least."

Ember hesitated for a long moment, long enough to let the forwardness of what she had said fully sink in.

"A rock for two," he conceded. "And one with every nearby rock already taken, so Storm cannot be a close neighbor."

Pearl let out a small warble of joy. He could not have been more clear without saying it outright-

"Just as friends for now," he continued. "I'm not entirely… _there_ yet."

"But you will be." It was not a question, not anymore.

"I think I will," he agreed.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily stalked through the forest, outwardly angry and frustrated. Her internal attitude wasn't much better, but she was at least aware that, were she to be stopped and questioned by someone, looking angry would give her an excuse to work with. An angry light wing stomping around was less suspicious than a neutral, secretive light wing sneaking in the same place. One implied she was just walking, and the other searching.

Storm had hinted at there being something near the path down from the mountain. Hopefully it was something useful; she wasn't entirely sure what the abrasive female dark wing meant for this vague thing to convince her of.

Lily stalked forward, puzzling over her entire predicament. Her allies had all fallen away with kind words and inaction, and her new opponent wasn't nearly as obviously evil as Claw. Even getting the pack to notice _Claw_ 's depravity was difficult; someone more subtle would be downright impossible.

A faint, coppery smell assaulted her nostrils all of a sudden, just a hint at the edge of her awareness. She hesitated, looked around, and saw nothing. The scent was still there, lingering.

She knew the smell of blood, and she knew the smell of Claw. Her back itched, a creeping sensation she couldn't shake, and she unsheathed her claws. If he was still around, she would…

What would she do? She considered that as she turned in a slow circle and got the direction the scent was coming from. He was badly injured, she knew that, and probably all but defenseless. Out here, in the woods, away from prying eyes.

She had so easily put aside the desire to destroy him in favor of understanding the new male that took his place, but now it all came rushing back as she contemplated something previously unthinkable. She could find him and kill him, make it hurt, put an end to his depravity with her own claws, avenge Granite and Pyre-

She found herself walking, and then as the scent thickened, running, galloping through the forest, out toward the beach, and to-

She skidded to a halt as a strange dark wing came into view, laying peacefully on the shore. He was a rusty brown color all about his head and paws, which abruptly transitioned to blue at certain points.

But Claw's scent still pointed to him, a thick odor wafting from his general direction.

The dark wing stared at her. "What are you running to?" he asked in a gravelly voice.

Lily realized that the brown coloration was blood, not a natural tone of scale and skin. Claw's blood. This dark wing looked a lot like Storm had… Was this what she had been sent to discover?

"Vengeance," she said, approaching him with trepidation. She might have fled, if she didn't somehow _know_ that this dark wing could catch her. Where Ember tempered his appearance with his words and demeanor, this dark wing put up no pretenses. His gaze was that of a killer, and a hunter at that.

"Against me, or against your Sire?" the dark wing asked, revealing knowledge he should not have had.

"Against him," Lily growled. She did not feel so confident and angry, not now, but showing weakness or fear to a predator would get her killed. She knew that.

"Did you want him to suffer?"

"Yes."

"Does it matter to you if you did it personally?" the dark wing asked, sounding as if he cared immensely. Lily wasn't sure what the right answer was.

So she went with the truth. "No. Just that he suffers. I don't want to be like him, even while seeking revenge. He would strike personally, but I am happy so long as it has been done."

"Wish granted," the dark wing rumbled. "I suppose that is what you were sent to learn."

"Who are you?" Lily asked. This might be a way to strike at Ember, the dark wings were all connected as far as she knew, and _this_ one could easily substitute for Claw in helping her gather support.

"A pity project," he replied calmly. "Do you want to see what is left of him?"

"That's not what I asked," Lily huffed, regaining some of her confidence as it sunk in that whatever his motivations, this dark wing didn't intend to harm her… at the moment. She felt she could push a little. "I wanted a name."

"Second." He stared steadily at her. "I've been told I should consider taking a new one, but I don't care to."

"Why are you here?" she asked. "And what happened to the people sent to follow Claw out?"

"They considered their task done the moment he went into the trees," Second replied in a level tone. "I am here because my alpha is here. He is here because someone he cares for asked him to be. I follow him because I do not trust myself to make good choices if I am independent. Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"Not at all, you're only making it worse," she huffed. "Why was I sent out here?"

"If you were sent to me for a reason, it is to see what I have done," Second rumbled neutrally. "Do you know why I did it?"

"Because Ember told you to, so that Claw would never return," she theorized. It was a clever scheme, granting Ember the appearance of being merciful, and still ensuring Claw was no longer a threat.

"Because I have done so many terrible things, but there was one limit I never let myself pass, though I was told to, pressured to, punished for refusing," Second corrected. His tone was still level, as if he was relating something of very little importance. He hadn't moved from his position relaxing on the warm sand. "I was and am a monster, of sorts, but Claw surpassed me. Storm asked if I was comfortable letting him live, and I decided I was not. So I hunted him down and did everything Ember has been trying to ensure I never do again."

"What did you do?" Lily asked, her voice shaking. She didn't know how much of that she believed, but the flaking old blood coating his paws and muzzle lent plenty of weight to certain claims.

"Everything he deserved for laying a paw on you," Second said coldly. "Trust that you would regret asking me for details."

"And are you going to do that to anyone _else_?" she asked nervously.

"No," he said simply. "My alpha has forbidden it, and I have disobeyed his orders in doing it this one time, but I do not intend to disobey again. His way is calmer. Better."

"Would you strike against someone trying to take the position of alpha back from him?" Lily pressed. She _had_ to know the answer to that, because if it was a yes of any sort, fighting Ember would be suicide, and that would determine how she went about things.

"To do so might result in his death, and he is my alpha, so yes," Second replied. "For now. Once I am sure he has something else to live for, you may try."

"Something else to live for?"

"He wished to die, and Pearl pulled him from his grief by proposing revenge," Second elaborated. "Then, after I was collected and his personal enemies were extinguished, she saw that he still wished to die, so she sent him against her worst nightmare, and all the while tried to make him understand that she wanted him for herself. She is close but not yet there, and this position, helping reform your pack into something worth existing, is keeping him from going off one day and wasting away in some forgotten hole in the ground."

"So you think taking power would be killing him," Lily summarized. She wasn't sure she believed him, not about Ember. He seemed fine.

Of course, the same could probably be said for her, even on her worst days. Just because she didn't see it didn't mean it was a lie, it just meant she hadn't been looking for it.

"For now. Let Pearl heal him." Second blinked slowly at her, still entirely unconcerned with her presence. "Do you want to see what I did?"

"Is this some sort of intimidation tactic?" Lily asked. She _did_ sort of want to see what had become of Claw.

"Yes, but that is a side benefit," Second said.

Lily stared at him for a long moment, wondering whether it would be stupid to say yes, and more importantly, whether it would be worth it.

"I want to see," she admitted. In the end, it was not like she could turn tail and fly away from the end. She had to know as much as she could about how her tormentor had met his well-deserved end, for her own satisfaction.

Second nodded, rose to his paws, and turned his back on the tideline, heading into the forest. Lily followed, her eyes on his extremely scarred tail. The only part of him that _wasn't_ scarred were his tailfins, oddly enough. It didn't seem to make sense; she could even see a few grey lines that terminated right at the fins, though they should have continued. The membrane of his wings had plenty of grey scars throughout.

The smell of Claw's blood grew stronger the deeper they went into the forest, and she began to feel the urge to gag in the back of her throat. She had never smelled that much blood, and the coppery scent was laced with other, more vile scents.

"You will regret looking," Second said, stopping and flaring a wing to block her view of whatever he had come across. There was a small hollow in a copse of trees, a place large enough to fit a light wing or two, but not much larger. "It will scar your mind." Despite his neutral tone, she could hear the warning, and with it the implication that he cared, just a little, for her well-being. Enough to prefer that she be warned beforepaw.

"He already scarred my mind. I will be trading one scar for another." Lily steeled herself and walked around Second's outstretched wing. He made no move to stop her-

But she stopped on her own the moment her eyes focused on the dark, bloody mess inside the hollow. There wasn't a hint of white to be seen, all coated in dark brown or sticky red blood.

This was all that remained of Claw. She tried to harden herself, to feel glad about the immense amount of suffering this had to have caused him, but all she felt was sick. She couldn't quite piece together what had happened, there was so much strewn about, none of it in quite the right place or looking right at all-

She turned away, her breathing light and fast, and began walking in the opposite direction, though it felt as if the world was spinning around her.

"I told you," Second said coldly.

"I don't regret looking," Lily said shakily, once again certain that she shouldn't show weakness. "I just have never seen _anything_ like that."

"Count yourself lucky," Second said softly.

She inhaled, held the air in until she could be sure she wasn't about to spew the contents of her stomach all over the nearest tree, and released it with a sigh. "Thank you," she said. "For dealing with him." She wouldn't thank him for the torture, thanking him for it just wasn't right, even if Claw had deserved it.

"It was done because of his crimes, not for you," was the reply.

That made her feel, if not better, then at least not as personally guilty.

"I will never do such a thing again," Second added, as if it was an afterthought. "I think I know how I want to spend the rest of my days, if my alpha will let me."

"How?" She had to know. He _was_ a monster, if one that had only acted because Claw deserved it. Somehow, she didn't think he was lying in anything he said. A predator that deadly had no _need_ to lie, not when he could probably snuff her life out in an instant if he didn't like what she thought of him.

"Here, in this forest," he said. "Roaming. All day, I have seen no guards, nobody venturing out. It is empty, massive, silent. Peaceful."

"You want peace?" she asked incredulously.

"I want… I want nature, and nobody around, and a task to keep my attention." He spoke as if he was not used to voicing his desires at all, heaving the words out like they were worth nothing, not even the air used to express them. "I can keep two eyes on these forests and watch for encroaching danger, for a long, long time to come. That is all."

"You wouldn't go into the valley?" She could scarcely imagine such a dangerous, feral person roaming the valley itself. He barely fit in here, in the otherwise peaceful forests.

"Not unless there was a great need." He walked beside her and caught her eye. "Overthrow Ember, if you must. Just give him time to find something else first. Or, cut out the difficult, violent part and just influence him toward whatever you want out of an alpha. He listens, even to those who don't deserve to have a voice or an opinion."

"I want…" She trailed off, realizing that she couldn't think of anything Ember had not already demonstrated. Freedom? He had given it without a second thought. A good leader? He was making a strong start in that direction.

"Claw gone," Second said coldly. "You want the domineering alpha who controlled and ruined your life _gone_ , dead and done with."

"Yes."

"You have that." He lifted a bloodstained paw, as if to remind her what lay behind them. "What now?"

"I don't know." The only thing she could think of that was both achievable and _not_ related to the alpha was regaining Crystal's support, and that would happen the moment she dropped her desire to uproot Ember, who had yet to do anything worth opposing. Just as Crystal was trying to tell her.

" _Not_ working against the alpha?" Second asked.

"I guess not." She knew she was being manipulated, or at least questioned with a purpose in mind, but he was _right_. There was no point in continuing her crusade against Claw's successor, not when he was making things better. It was just that she had no clue what to do, other than that.

"Good." Second turned his tail on her and began to leave, winding his way between the trees. She watched as he disappeared from sight, leaving her alone with her thoughts and her lack of direction.


	16. All That Remains - Close (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains.** _

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

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**Background: The tenth and final entry to** _**All That Remains** _ **, the AU where the big question has the other answer…**

**A note for those of you who have an eye for timelines: I may have bumped a character's age up by a few years for one specific scene in this chapter. Given they weren't introduced until** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **, that's fine, because that isn't canon to this AU anyway. Said age change is the only change I made to that person apart from the obvious ripple effect this whole story is based around.**

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"Go, Silva, go!" Pearl cheered. "You too, Blur, but mostly you Silva!"

The two wrestling fledglings both growled and continued with renewed energy. They were roughly the same age, just out of the hatchling stage of life, and evenly matched. Silva was on top for the moment, but Blur was fighting back, using his tail to smack at her and pull her hind paws out of position.

Silva let out a small whine as Blur kicked her in the stomach and knocked her off. She ran to Pearl and hid behind her.

"I win!" Blur cheered, seeing his opponent vanquished and lacking the ability to understand that there was anything more important than their game.

"That is why females do not wrestle males." Diora's voice was quiet but smug, and Pearl was glad she was watching from atop a rock, not right next to her. It was easier to ignore her that way.

"You okay?" Pearl asked, crouching and putting her tail over Silva.

"He hit me!" Silva burst out with another whine.

"That was the game," Pearl reminded her. Blur had kicked surprisingly hard for a little fledgling, but Silva had struck him at least as hard before now, and he just kept going. He was used to roughhousing…

But Silva was not, and that was what Pearl was trying to work on today with Blur's innocent assistance. That, and just getting her socializing with males.

"He hit _hard_ ," Silva insisted.

"Does it hurt now?" If Silva was still in pain, it might be serious-

"No," Silva admitted.

"Then you should go back and wrestle him again," Pearl advised. "Don't give up."

"Or…" Silva prompted with wide eyes.

"Or what?" Pearl laughed, sweeping her tiny sister onto her back. "Want me to help you win? Just this once?"

"Yes!" Silva cheered, lunging forward and straddling Pearl's neck in her desire to watch.

"Blur," Pearl growled, "you and me, now!"

Blur looked up at her and snarled in a voice far too high-pitched to be threatening, his little body quaking with exertion. "I will win!" he proclaimed, utterly confident even in the face of an adult.

Pearl saw a lot of how she wanted Silva to act in Blur, as brashly overconfident as he was. She stepped forward, mindful of Silva on her neck, and proceeded to assault him with her paws, stamping carefully to either side of him while giving the impression she was giving it her all.

Both fledglings certainly believed she was trying; the shrieks from between her ears were almost disorienting, and Blur snarled and swatted at her legs.

"So much noise," Diora complained in the background. Pearl responded by randomly barking as she pressed forward and overwhelmed Blur, adding to the noise with glee. Silva shrieked triumphantly as Pearl collapsed, dragging her paws in to corral Blur and hold him to her chest. He pummeled her, but the same kick that had surprised Silva was nothing against Pearl.

"We win," Pearl declared, flipping Blur onto his back and resting her head on top of him for good measure.

"No!" Blur complained.

"Yes," she retorted. "You cannot win every time." Blur wasn't even related to her, but she felt confident that teaching him some humility would not get her in trouble with his parents. They had offered to let her chaperone the playtime and flown off, after all. They could not complain if she took that authority and ran with it. Really, if she was not so invested in making sure it went well and Diora stayed _out_ of it, she might have been annoyed with them.

"Are you almost done?" Diora asked with a growl.

"Hmm…" Pearl made a show of thinking it over, and looked up at the sky. It was almost exactly noon. She didn't need to stall for much longer. "Yes, just about."

"No!" Blur and Silva both exclaimed in unison.

"Playtime can't last all day," Pearl said. "Besides, aren't you both hungry?" She would bet they were; they hadn't eaten since she got them in the morning.

Blur rumbled something unintelligible, and Silva bit down on one of Pearl's ears, thankfully without her teeth.

"You are teaching her so many bad habits," Diora complained.

"Yup," Pearl responded. It was the only thing she _could_ say with fledglings within hearing range, and it helped solidify her appearance as the fun older sister. Technically, it was responding to Diora, but she wasn't holding herself to that rule so harshly anymore. She had plenty of other ways to bother her that only worked if she spoke.

A light wing descended from above, landing in the space between rocks. "It is noon," Ivy announced.

"Get lost," Diora hissed.

"Yes it is!" Pearl agreed, ignoring the pointless bile coming from Diora's direction. "Silva, time to go with your Sire. Ivy, Silva is in the middle of playtime with this little guy, so if you would take him too, that would be great."

"I went fishing before coming, and I brought back plenty," Ivy agreed. "What of his parents?"

"They'll find you sooner or later," Pearl grumbled. They hadn't given her a time to expect them back, either, so she felt it was fair to let someone else take over.

"Okay. We will be at my rock." Ivy flicked his tail at Silva and Blur. "Come with me if you want to eat."

Silva slid off of Pearl's neck, and the moment her weight was clear Pearl let Blur go free. Both fledglings happily ran over to him. Silva seemed to have forgotten being kicked, and Blur was not overly affected by losing for once.

"Disgusting, miserable worm," Diora snarled, watching Ivy lead the fledglings away.

"Language," Pearl quipped, hopping up onto an unoccupied rock to wait. Ember had said he would come meet her here at about noon, so she expected she would be leaving soon. He hadn't said what they would be doing, but he would have _something_ in mind.

"I will say whatever I want about that disloyal, disgusting traitor," Diora retorted.

"Sure, but not within earshot of a fledgling." Pearl shot her a meaningful look.

Diora shut her mouth with a scowl, though the fledglings were well out of earshot by then. She knew the consequences of putting a paw out of line when it came to Silva, or her former mate's time with her, or really _anything_ related to fledglings. Ember had laid down the law very firmly, and the consequences were enough to hold Diora's tongue.

Pearl wished Diora _would_ say something vile enough to get her in trouble; she would be happy to see Ivy get full custody of Silva, now that he was well away from Diora and taking mandatory lessons from several different Dams on how to properly raise a daughter. But that could only happen if Diora firmly crossed a line, and she was smart enough to know not to do that.

"Is Ember coming to get you?" Diora asked, suddenly polite, possibly even hopeful.

"Yes," Pearl said shortly. She knew Diora had _another_ motivation for wanting to stay off of Ember's bad side. She didn't particularly mind it, either, because she knew Ember would never fall for Diora's tricks, and in longing after him _personally_ , Diora wasn't bothering to send Silva to try and seduce him. She was happy to bear a little discomfort if it kept Silva from being a pawn.

"Will he be staying to chat?"

"No." She saw an orange silhouette in the sky, and quickly rose to her paws. "See you in a few days. I have arranged several more playtimes with other fledglings, I hope you mind." She launched into the air, flying up to meet Ember to forestall Diora even beginning to try and seduce him.

"Have a good time?" Ember asked, greeting her with a purr.

"Very," she said truthfully. "Diora was an ineffective whiner, which is doing her no favors in Silva's eyes, I got to be the fun older sister, the male fledgling played nice enough, and Ivy is doing much better at actually engaging her." She didn't have a single important complaint about the state of things, except that she wished she could cut Diora out of it entirely in a way that would _keep_ her out.

"I knew those lessons for him were a good idea," Ember purred. "Three days a week, half a day each time. Think I should cut him some slack?"

"No way," Pearl growled. "He might be cooperating now, but I want him under constant watch for a long time to come." Ivy had been nothing but a background disappointment in her life, and she did not trust him to be assertive and kind and a good Sire without strict guidance. The Dams who had volunteered to provide such were effective, but she wanted him under their watch so long that when it stopped, he wouldn't _remember_ how to go back to doing nothing at all. Preferably until Silva was an adult, really.

"I might start rotating out his teachers, though," Ember suggested. "Maybe mix in a few with no mate and fledglings of their own, so he gets more practice."

"And a steady stream of carefully selected options to maybe tempt him into opening up his heart..." Pearl snorted. "I think you _like_ playing matchmaker."

"It makes my life easier if everyone is happy," Ember said. "Even if getting there requires a lot of work and a lot of temporary unhappiness."

"Was what you did with Storm this morning making her happy?" Pearl asked. "Or temporarily making her mad? I don't know if it was such a good suggestion, even if I agreed with you."

"Can't hurt," Ember mused. "Unless she gets mad and bites me in retaliation… but I think they will hit it off."

O-O-O-O-O

Storm intended to stomp on Ember's tail the next time she caught him unaware.

"Seriously?" she hissed, glaring at the male in front of her.

"I fail to see why it bothers you," the male said timidly, trying and failing to sound unaffected by her display of anger. "We are not mates _now_. I got out of it, with the alpha's approval."

"It is not _that_ ," she hissed. He had the gall to come across all cool and confident when he was anything but, and Ember had the gall to suggest she take him out for a morning meal and get to know him… Even Pearl had nodded approvingly at the idea. Did none of them know her? Or him, for that matter?

"Then what is it? I was not the one at fault-"

"I am not looking for a limp fish!" she exclaimed. "That was the first thing I said! You said you were no such thing, and neglected to mention that you let your mate treat you like dirt for dozens of season-cycles without even trying to fight back!"

"That was then-"

"And now you are shying away from me!" she burst out. "I would walk all over you and we both know it."

"Then this was a mistake," he said, backing away from her.

"Yes. It was." She growled and shook her wings out. "Go find someone calm and kind and able to build you up, because I am a _storm_ , not some mellow breeze!" She roared full-force at him to make her point.

The male abandoned his hollow, cracked dignity and fled, beating at the air with haste.

Storm slammed her paws down on the stone, then did it again just to vent some angry energy. Why had Ember even _bothered_ , he was the one who had split the male and his abusive mate in the first place, he had to know it was a bad match. Maybe that was what he meant by calling it a 'date', that certainly hadn't made any sense at the time-

"Hey!" Crystal dropped out of the sky in front of her, landing on the ledge she had driven the male away from. "What was that?"

"My brother having a laugh at me, I think," Storm snarled, making some small effort to rein in her temper. She couldn't call Crystal a friend, not really, but she was certainly a friendly acquaintance, and those were too rare to drive away with her attitude when it wasn't even aimed at them.

"Copper was not laughing," Crystal said with a growl. "He does not deserve to be driven away."

"He also does not deserve to try and court me without knowing what he is courting, and he cracked at the first sign of thunder," Storm huffed. "There is no way Ember thought that was a good potential pairing. Who would put a loud, abrasive, confident female with a timid, soft-spoken male?"

"Someone who saw more than that in both of them?" Crystal shrugged her wings. "Maybe it was a joke, you know our alpha better than me. But Copper _is_ about your age, and available, and a male. There are not many fitting all three of those qualities. Maybe Ember was just pointing out your options."

"My _options,_ " Storm growled, slowly calming from outright anger to bitterness. "You say that like there are so many. Him, a few other equally fragile males from other splits, and a few young males who are not even old enough to know why they would want a female at all. Those are my options."

"There is a middle ground," Crystal argued.

"Show me it, then," Storm challenged, glaring at her. "I have no patience for nice, empty words. Not today."

"You know what? Fine." Crystal turned and left the ledge. "Follow me!"

There was no way Storm could resist such a response, and she followed without a second thought. They flew down into the valley, over to a specific rock, one just like the dozens all around it. Two females and a male were there, the male lazing on top of the rock, and the females talking to one of their neighbors.

"Rain, I need a favor," Crystal called out.

"Now?" the male roared back. He hadn't even looked up to see who he was talking to. Storm felt yet another spark of indignation. Was Crystal about to set her up with yet another spineless, lazy male? If the other female hadn't seemed so _sure_ this would prove her wrong, Storm would have flown away then and there.

The male flew up to meet them. "How big of a favor?" he asked as he reached their elevation. "And for who?"

"The opposite of what Lily asked you to do with Grass last moon-cycle," Crystal said cryptically. "With Storm, this time. Spare no effort."

"That is a small favor," Rain said smoothly, flying a little higher. He slid into place over them, looking down at them both. "Now?"

"Now," Crystal said firmly. "Put all that skill you claim to have to the test."

"Stop talking like I am not here," Storm snarled. She glared up at Rain and snarled at him for good measure.

"So, what has got her in a twist?" Rain asked Crystal, provoking another snarl from Storm. She would have done more, but Crystal and Rain were both flying downward now, and she had to concentrate on not running into either of them as they got in her way.

"Our alpha is not a good match maker," Crystal explained. "She roared away Copper for being too fragile."

"And he _was_ ," Storm added.

"Physically?" Rain asked with a snort. They all landed on the shore by the valley. There was nobody else around.

Storm took the opportunity to glare at both Crystal and Rain to their faces, alternating between them. She would stay long enough to prove herself right… though she couldn't remember exactly what she had said, or what Crystal was trying to disprove. Something about none of the males around being at all suitable.

"Emotionally," Storm corrected. "I say what I think, and he would never be able to take that. I do not know what Crystal means to prove."

"I have an idea," Rain snorted. "Let me be sure I have this right, you roared away a potential mate because he was too weak to put up with you?"

"Yes, and I will do it again," she threatened.

"Oh, I am not interested in you at all," Rain laughed.

"Because you have a mate." She had already guessed that, he was too casual and-

"Nope, totally free," he said with a smirk. Crystal had backed away, putting herself out of the conversation, though not out of hearing range.

"Why?" Storm asked, momentarily perplexed. There were almost no free males in this pack, in fact there was a surplus of available females snapping up any male that came around. Half the males Ember had broken free of their previous mates already had new ones, and it had only been a few moon-cycles.

"I choose to be," he said with a smug purr. He moved to the top of a sand dune, looking down at her with confident, devious eyes. "Most are way too needy and desperate, and a lot of them _were_ my Sire's mates, making them the Dams of my half-siblings."

"Disgusting," Storm snarled.

"Thus why they are not options," he agreed. "I like being unattached, and I definitely like the attention. You, on the other paw, have high standards and no redeeming qualities."

"Sounds like we are exactly alike, then," she spat. "You have none either." He was physically plain, white with a blue glint and blue eyes, and his demeanor roared 'lazy' at the top of its nonexistent lungs.

"I am easy going, amiable, and experienced in driving females wild," he snorted. "I even have two Dams, meaning twice the helpful advice if I want it, and none of the corrupt influence of my disgusting Sire, because neither Dam liked him. I am this pack's most eligible male, or I will be the moment our alpha makes it official with Pearl."

Storm glared at him, a thousand possible insults fighting for her attention. There were so many things she could say to that…

"Well?" he flicked his tail condescendingly. "This is where you brag right back at me."

"I would only do that if I was attracted to you," she said, settling on a good retort. "I prefer a male with a spine, not one that rolls over and calls himself easy-going."

"I noticed that you avoided bragging about yourself," he said. "Do not think you got away with it. I have a theory as to why you are driving away your few prospects."

"It is wrong, whatever it is," she growled.

"You like females," he guessed.

Storm choked, tried to build up a blast, and choked on that too. "Idiot," she spluttered.

"What?" He stepped forward and coasted down the dune with no effort. "I like them too. Trust me, you do not have to build up an excuse for checking out Crystal or whoever else has your heart thumping. Nobody here cares."

"You are stupid because that is not it," Storm growled. "I know what I want." She told others no lies and hid nothing, and the same went for herself… most of the time. This was not one of the rare exceptions.

"But you are driving it away with every breath," Rain snorted, coming closer. "Emotionally weak? That is your excuse?"

"It is a good one, I have hurt people before," she growled."You have to weather the storm to stay within it." She still wanted to fire at him, or better yet rake her claws through his smug face, but she held back. That felt like something Third would have done, and she was done acting like him.

"Is that all?" He shook his head. "No, probably not. But the pick around here is slim to none, aside from yours truly. Is it really so bad out there?"

"Yes." That, she could admit. She had spent long enough complaining about it. Finding that this pack had few good options was frustrating, even more so than the absolute lack of options elsewhere, because she could see plenty of good males already taken, all around her.

"You would settle for any male, so long as he can stand you and will not break under your scorn?" Rain asked, coming closer still. "Not possible. You are far too passionate for anyone to hold strong against it."

His words struck at her, and she felt her heart fall. She _knew_ he was right, of course he was, the only strong males she knew were all related to her in one way or another, and even then, she had hurt one, almost let another die, violently, fervently hated the third, and could barely stand Second.

"But, you know, some things are fine in a storm, no matter how bad," he hummed. He was very close now, having closed the distance while she was reeling from his words, and began circling around her. "How about a male who bends with the blows, is not hurt by them, knows you are all bluster and no bite? A suave one, one available right now, right next to you…"

He was whispering in her ear now, right next to her but somehow not touching, his body heat palpable. "Rain goes paw in paw with a storm, and you cannot say the storm hurts it. The storm brings it to life."

Storm shuddered, conflicted and suddenly very, very aware that there was a male next to her, just as he had said.

But just as she was trying to figure out how she _actually_ felt about him, he pulled away. "Okay, admittedly, that last line was really, really bad," he said with a purr. "Did the job though, did it not?"

"What?" she whined.

"That, my naive friend, was manipulation," Rain revealed. "I poked at your weak spots, figured out what they were, and presented myself as the answer."

"What?" she repeated. She didn't have it in her to be angry, because even knowing it was some sort of trick, she was still confused.

"I would be a total creep to _actually_ try to get your affection that way," he continued. "Shake it off, it will go away sooner or later."

"You _are_ a creep," Storm accused without really believing it. She was still in shock, and contrary to what he had said, the confusion he had awakened within her wasn't going away. She was still seeing him as a very, very appealing male able to work with her worst traits instead of bearing them and suffering all the while.

"No, I will never court anyone that way," he said, his tone growing serious. "If I court someone, it will be with romantic flights and heartfelt talks and all of the things that would only _really_ work if they actually liked me. But like I said, it would take a very special female to improve on my current situation."

Storm shook her head and launched into the air. Maybe if she got away from him for a little while, it would go away.

Though she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to seeing him as just another light wing.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember lounged behind a bush, his ears perked up and his side warm. Pearl was leaning against him, camouflaged and thus able to stand in what would be plain sight, while he was reduced to hiding if he wanted to eavesdrop on the confrontation that had landed right in front of them.

"I feel cruel," Crystal admitted to Rain, watching as Storm departed. "But she needed to be disproven, she was acting terrible and full of herself. I owe you one."

"She was disappointed and certain she would never find anyone," Rain said softly. "And, you know, acting horrible because of it. I see a lot of that nowadays. At least she is upfront about it."

"Still." Crystal shook herself out and took to the air. "Come get me when you need that favor returned!"

Rain sighed and stretched out on the sand, draping himself across a dune. "No," he murmured to himself. "I think I owe you one, Crystal."

Pearl stuck her head against Ember's and dramatically wiggled her ears, using touch to get across what he wouldn't be able to see. He got the message, and had picked up the same thing himself. Copper might have been a poor choice, but it looked like there might be something developing between Storm and Rain… Which would be poetic if true, for their names alone.

Rain lingered on the shore for a few more heartbeats, but he was not long in standing and shaking the sand off himself. "It would take a very special female… Maybe it will go away." He chuckled to himself and took off, abandoning the shore.

"He is _so_ going to fall for her," Pearl predicted the moment Rain was out of earshot.

"It does seem likely," Ember agreed. "He _did_ sound sincere when he spoke of not having to weather her storm."

"Totally," Pearl purred. "Anyway, that happened. Do you still want to talk to Crystal today?"

"Yes, but I should not be seen flying up from here…" Ember nodded. "You go get her. I'll be up above the valley."

"Fly fast," Pearl warned him, taking off so hard the backdraft from her wings ruffled his frills. He took her warning to heart and only jogged a short distance down the shoreline before rising into the air.

It was a chilly day, and he flew low, avoiding the high altitudes and the additional cold they offered. He had felt cold far too often in his life, and in some of his worst moments. He much preferred the heat nowadays, even if it was only the heat of another person next to him.

Flying low meant encountering other dragons, light wings headed to and from the ocean, or across the valley, or just flying in circles. Several called out to him, and he responded with an upbeat roar. A duo made to fly with him, but he shook his head and discouraged them, and they continued with whatever it was they had meant to do before.

A small group rose from the valley below, all headed in the same direction. Ember watched as they made for the ocean. Judging by the size, he would guess they were the day's fishing detachment. The Dams with no Sire to help out, and in one case the Sire with no helping Dam, would soon be receiving fish for their children.

"Alpha!" Crystal called out from behind him. He startled, not yet used to what seemed to be a quirk of light wings. They were so used to sneaking around and being snuck up on that they were somewhat desensitized to it. He was not, not yet.

"Crystal," he greeted, falling back to fly beside her. If he didn't, she would trail him, and that was not the tone he wanted to set. He noticed a blur flying up and to the side, and assumed that Pearl had returned with her quarry.

"You needed me?" Crystal asked. "I was about to go help with the noon fishing, so if it will be quick-"

"It won't be quick, but there were plenty of them when I saw them heading out," Ember rumbled. "Look down at the valley. Tell me what you see." He had a route in mind for this conversation, and way to bring Crystal around to what he intended before he asked her. He was not like Stoick, to pressure and take no for an answer… but he did not want to hear a no.

"Happy, peaceful people with a benevolent alpha," Crystal offered.

"I meant what is going on down there," he rumbled. "As in, right now."

It took Crystal much longer to answer this one, and when she did she spoke hesitantly. "I might be missing something, but it all looks normal."

"It is normal," he sighed. Apparently, he wasn't very good at leading people toward what he wanted to talk about. "The groups carrying out tasks. Like those fishing dragons you were going to join."

"Oh!" Crystal nodded her head eagerly. "I see them. The rock-smoothing group is over near the edge of the valley, for one."

"Why do they do what they do?" he asked.

"To make the rocks nobody wants more attractive," she said without hesitation. "Future adults looking for places will not have to deal with dangerous sharp edges."

"Yes, exactly." The light wings were already in the habit of taking smaller stones and filing off their own rocks if needed, and some of the least desirable boulders were downright dangerous… or had been, before he had seen the need. It wasn't a fun job, requiring a lot of strength and usually resulting in a sore neck or paw, but it was a good improvement to make.

"I also see the scouts coming in," Crystal said, looking up from the valley. "And another group going out. We send them to make sure nothing big is coming our way without us knowing."

"Correct." Whether it was one big dragon, a roaming pack of dragons, or anything to do with humans, they would have _some_ advance warning.

"The fishing group, obviously. They help everyone who would otherwise struggle to find the time to fish and care for their children." Crystal purred. "Thank you for that, by the way. I _could_ find the time, but it does make life easier."

"It does," Ember agreed. "How are they?"

"Burble and Strike are great, and they get along well with every fledgling they meet," Crystal said proudly. "They are with the play group today, which is another of the groups you created, so that single Dams can have some time to themselves on occasion."

"Yes." He was, as always, both flattered and a little bothered that she had named her younger hatchling 'Strike' in honor of his sudden attack on Claw. It didn't feel right to name a hatchling after the event that had broken and probably doomed said hatchling's Sire… But nothing about Crystal's lot in life felt fair or right, so he let it slide. At least she was happy with it. "Other groups?"

"Well…" Crystal spent some time staring down at the valley they were now circling from above. "I do not see the guard, but I assume they are around somewhere."

"It is their off day," he corrected.

"Oh, right," she murmured. "Why was I not invited, again?"

"I only picked people who have the least to lose and a need to feel like they are important," he said quietly. That mostly meant those of Claw's mates who had never produced an egg, meaning the guard was almost entirely female. Crystal, having two children solely dependent on her, definitely did not fit that description.

"I suppose that makes sense…" Crystal shook herself, shaking off whatever she was thinking. "The guard are those learning to fight, and in an emergency the ones that are expected to drop whatever they are doing and respond. Storm and Pearl lead them… together?"

"We don't really have a leader," Pearl volunteered from the shimmering air off to the side. "Storm teaches them to be decisive, and I teach them to be kind and empathetic while also ready to be stern if needed, and Ember teaches them to fight. They are supposed to be independent in case there is nobody to give orders when a crisis happens."

"Oh, I did not know that," Crystal admitted.

"But you did well enough anyway," Ember said with a purr. She hadn't mentioned a few of the smaller, more niche groups he had created, but she got the majority of them right.

"I did… but why test me?" Crystal asked. "Maybe I have spent too much time with Lily, but I feel like I am being led to something and checked to ensure I can do it."

"Pretty much," Ember admitted. It _did_ feel like something Lily would do, though he didn't know her well enough to be sure. She was quiet, withdrawn, and spent a lot of time out in the forest. If he didn't have someone he trusted out there watching out for her, he might worry for her safety.

"So?" Crystal asked. "I would rather you just tell me."

"I am not going to be alpha forever," Ember said bluntly, giving her what she wanted. "And this pack has a problem I don't think I can fix, by virtue of who I am and how I got here." He had noticed it time and time again, and all his efforts toward solving it were worthless, coming from him. Everyone bowed, meekly agreed, and then continued to act and think as they had before he had spoken, because being _ordered_ to think for oneself by the alpha just didn't work.

"Is that problem how easily they obey you?" Crystal asked, startling him with her insight. "Because if you are not thinking of that, you have two problems, not one."

"Yes," he admitted. "I came in and took over by force, and they all obey me without questioning it. I know it was the same with Claw, and I worry that if I ever did something terrible, they might watch and approve of it because I am alpha." He did not and would never fully trust himself or his abilities, and leading a pack who blindly approved of him was terrible in that respect.

"Lily and I were working to fix that, but…" Crystal trailed off for a moment, before looking over at him. "I guess I should just say it without worrying about how you will take it. You took that away from us. We were going to teach the whole pack to rebel and overthrow him, and _then_ they would know not to obliviously approve of their next alpha, because they had taken action once and could again. Then you showed up, smacked Claw right out of our lives, and made it so that they could obey with a clear conscience. Nothing has changed except that the loyalty and blind approval go to a good alpha for now."

Ember nodded, feeling cold. "I did," he admitted. "That is why I cannot fix it, and I cannot be the monster they would need to learn better." Not only would acting that part push him way too far toward being like Vithvarandi, he doubted Pearl would let him even _pretend_ to be a cold, dark person. She pushed him toward the warmth and life and future with every word, and he couldn't bear to set himself against her. Even now, he could tell she had shifted in the air to fly directly above him, as if ready to pounce and knock some sense into him as they fell.

"I cannot either," Crystal warned.

"I don't want you to be the monster," Ember assured her. "What I _want_ is to step down in a few season-cycles and pass on the leadership to someone who is nothing like me. A female, for one, because the tradition of the alpha being a male needs to die." He thought of Astrid, who had killed that same pattern on Berk. Hopefully, she was doing well.

"And?" Crystal prompted.

"Female, and one of those who _knows_ what has happened and what needs to be fixed," he listed. "One of Claw's mates, but an unwilling one, which really narrows it down."

"Lily could do it, maybe better than I could," Crystal offered in a shaky voice, her eyes wide. "We were going to make her alpha. I have hatchlings to look after."

"I know little of Lily," Ember retorted. "She has barely spoken to me, except to thank me once for what I did, and once to turn down an offer." Lily fit the requirements to be a guard, but she had refused immediately upon being asked, and gave no reason. He hadn't pushed her.

"She could do it," Crystal repeated.

"You could too, and I know you far better," Ember said firmly, looking her in the eye. "Pearl knows you. I know you, because you are so often around, with Pearl or just pitching in. You are not content to sit back, you get involved in things. Between you and Lily, I would pick you every time. You know the problem, and more importantly, as alpha you could teach them to question, to think for themselves. They would have no ingrained reason to obey _you_ , except that you are alpha." He didn't have all the details, but he knew he couldn't do anything more effective than this, while she probably could.

"I have hatchlings… but you said not for a while yet…" Crystal fell silent.

"You don't have to accept it now," Ember assured her. "I will wait until your children are grown, and in the meantime I will show you everything I do and everything I know." This was a long-term plan, unlike the other thing he meant to do today.

"It is not going to be easy," Crystal whispered. "I think it would have been easier to leave us be and let us overthrow Claw in our own time… though people would have suffered and died for it, so I cannot say that it would have been _better_."

"Maybe. But I didn't come here for your pack." He had come for Pearl. Taking over and fixing things had been a secondary goal, if even an actual problem in his mind. It was possible his arrival and intervention had made things worse in the long run, as Crystal had said.

But for his own sake, he couldn't say he would do it differently, given the choice of listening to Pearl or casting himself off that sea stack.

"Teach me, and if I feel I am ready when the time comes, I will do it," Crystal decided. "Please?"

"Done," Ember agreed. "Thank you."

"Teach me well, because I do not understand how you even came up with half of the things you have done for us," Crystal said. She ducked down and dropped into a dive, leaving abruptly.

"That's because I was taught to lead a village by a big, burly Viking," Ember sighed. "This is the weirdest dragon pack anyone has ever seen." The division of labor certainly wasn't a dragon trait, let alone moderating Dams and Sires like he arranged for Diora and Ivy, or anything to do with manipulating the environment for long-term benefits, like with those he had set to diverting a stream Second had found deep in the forest… This might be a pack of dragons, but he was teaching it to function a lot more like a village of Vikings.

"Just to check," Pearl said from above him, "you want to step down and enjoy life, right?"

"Exactly. I'll be staying here." He wanted to stick around and see what he had wrought, after all, and the urge to go find an isolated corner and die had disappeared entirely, fading away without him ever really noticing.

"Alive. Happy. In love?" she asked.

"Very much so." He purred up at her. "Don't tell anyone."

"On the contrary, I'm going to roar it in Diora's face," Pearl quipped. "We have been acting like mates for a moon-cycle and she still acts like you are available if she shakes her tail hard enough."

"Maybe she does not believe it," Ember said. "So long as she keeps shaking her own tail, not Silva's, I'm fine with ignoring her." That was the reason he and Pearl had not seen fit to announce it to the valley. They _were_ mates, but not everyone needed to know.

"My thoughts exactly," Pearl purred. "By the way, I'm going to bite you for not telling me about the plan to make Crystal alpha."

"I didn't tell you?" He was sure he had, and recently.

"No!" She dipped down and smacked her tail on his back, startling him. "I'm sure you did not!"

"I definitely did!" he objected. "Right before you told me Lily had talked to you and given you a plant!"

"Oh…" He couldn't see her, but he knew her well enough to know she was embarrassed. "Maybe you did. I wasn't paying attention. And what we did after probably helped me forget."

"Probably." He looked down, and noticed they were by the ledges. "So, you were going to bite me?"

Pearl laughed, a joyous sound that made him feel warm inside. "So long as your duties are done for the day, alpha, but I want some fish first. I haven't eaten since dawn."

"We'll fish fast," he promised, turning toward the ocean. The wind was cold, but he felt warm inside.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily walked awkwardly, a vine looped over her neck. It draped down past her paws, catching on things and tripping her up, but she was used to its presence and was learning to manage it without tripping too badly. She needed to learn if she wanted to go anywhere with it.

Of course, it was just a vine, and she could drop it and carry it some other way. That would mean coming back for it, as she already had plants everywhere she could think of. Efficiency was the name of this game, and she played against herself to make boring labor more interesting.

As she walked, slowly and with great care for balance, she went over what she was carrying. Obviously, there was the pain-killing vine across her neck and sometimes under her paws. It was strong and didn't keep very well, but she had found a massive supply strangling a tree and felt no remorse for taking so much.

Further down, cradled between her wings, was a whole branch of spindly green needles. It served no purpose except to make caves smell fresh and clean without permanently removing the underlying odor of whoever lived there, and she meant to take it up to her cave for exactly that.

Her tail, curled up awkwardly, was host to a whole selection of smaller flowers and weeds with various properties. Her fins lay doubled back, pressing the greenery to the base of her tail to hold it down.

Her paws and wings were mostly useless for carrying things while moving around, but today she had innovated and was balancing a chunk of bark on her head, holding it between her ears. It was good for making someone throw up everything in their stomach no matter what they had eaten, and unlike the vine would keep for a very long time. She meant to give it to Crystal, who often had to coax her children into coughing up things they should not have swallowed, and who had experienced a few scares with the normal gag reflex not working well enough.

Lily was confident that she had beaten her old record by a fair margin; the bark on her head was a solid addition to the pile she was going to create on the shore, when she got there.

She weaved around a large thicket of knobbly old trees, knowing from experience that they would slow her down and scrape off her carefully balanced plants, and stepped into the sunlight soon afterward. It was a cold day, but thankfully not windy at all, aside from a chilly breeze drifting in from the ocean.

Lily stopped at the top of a dune, almost stumbling on the last few steps as her vine tried to foil her perfect walk at the last moment, and unceremoniously dumped everything. The bark slid down the other side of the dune, creating its own little cascade of sand.

She snorted, fell to the side, and rolled onto her back, kicking her paws up and luxuriating in no longer needing to watch every movement. The walk was a challenge, but part of the fun was dropping it all at the end.

Besides, she needed to relax. She still needed to bring it all up to her cave, and that meant either a series of back and forth flights, or one long, painfully difficult walk. She had yet to even attempt walking the steep path to her cave with such a burden, and doubted that today would be the day. She could fly, and that was infinitely easier even if it did require many more trips.

A duo of shapes flew across the sun above her, and she squinted to make out who they were. One was a light wing and thus impossible to identify, but the other had a dark orange that did not disappear once they were no longer right in front of the sun. Ember.

She wondered where he was going with a single companion, then thought better of it. Hopefully, that was Pearl up there. She deserved to finally get what she was waiting for.

If it was Pearl, then hypothetically she could begin working against Ember again now. Second would no longer stand in the way.

Not that she wanted to. Ember had proven himself many times over, though his methods and ideas were strange and often felt cobbled together from things he had seen done elsewhere, not his own imagination. To her, anyway; nobody else noticed that sort of thing.

Taking from elsewhere or coming up with it himself, he knew right from wrong, and just as importantly, knew how to make his plans work once things inevitably went wrong. He was a good alpha, and she hoped he would either lead for a very long time, or come up with a way to select a worthy successor. She _liked_ not having to worry about a corrupt, vile male having power over everyone else, and had no desire to go back to the likes of Claw someday.

"You are vulnerable."

Lily sighed loudly and refused to move. She even closed her eyes to make a point. "And I know the only fierce creature around is on my side. I'm allowed to be vulnerable."

"A ship could come up from the water and catch you by surprise," Second said gruffly from somewhere behind her head.

"Two dragons just flew overhead, they would not have been acting normally if a ship was in plain sight below," she countered.

"If you think that is sufficient," Second allowed. "More plants?"

"Don't eat any of them," Lily warned.

"This one smells like vomit," Second observed.

"And one of them makes you vomit, so that might be it." She reluctantly rolled to her paws, shook herself, and opened her eyes.

Second was pawing through her collection of greeney. As she watched, he opened his mouth, inhaled so strongly a flower stirred from the pile, and coughed.

"That'll teach you," she hummed. "What brings you here?"

"I found a pile of prey waste, scattered it to mark my presence, and then grew tired of the scent on my paws," Second recounted.

"So you came all the way over here?" she asked.

"I came to the shore, saw a light wing in the distance, and came closer for a better look… after washing my paws."

"One of these days, you're going to mistake someone else for me and scare the life out of them," Lily snorted.

"I would not do that," he hummed.

"Sure." She began collecting the various plants, pulling them all into a pile that just happened to be away from him. Her back was to him, but she felt no fear. Not now. Actions spoke louder than appearances, and Second had never been anything but courteous… to her.

Of course, she knew about his past now. All it had taken was a question posed to Storm. Surprisingly, Storm had not softened the story at all, so she knew the truth. Oddly, knowing he had a troubled past made it _easier_ for her to feel comfortable around him. She knew people hiding and running from their pasts, and she knew how it felt to be around those people.

If she was being honest with herself, she missed Pyre, and Second, while very, very different, was like him in some ways. So, she never told anyone about him - another similarity, she had kept Pyre a secret too - and he did as he had said he would.

She did not see him often; he spent his days roaming far and wide through the forest. But when they did meet, she enjoyed his company, and he hers, in a way that did not make her uncomfortable at all.

"Have you done it yet?" he asked, pawing a wayward flower toward her.

"Told Ember? Not yet. I want a few successes to talk about first." The bark to Crystal would be one such success, and she had high hopes for gradually introducing the plant that prevented eggs, though that one would have to wait, as that seemed important enough to require the alpha's approval.

"You're stalling. You said the same last time I asked, and that was many days ago." Second looked to the sky. "It is closing in on the cold season now, and I asked when the leaves were beginning to fall."

"I'll tell him. You have a place to withstand the cold?" She worried for him, though she knew she shouldn't. From what she knew, it was more likely he would let himself suffer than actually fail to find sufficient shelter.

"I found a nook hidden at the base of the mountains near your path," he revealed. "I'll be there."

Lily purred loudly this time, knowing she had to make her approval clear. He had given her something to look for so she wouldn't worry, and she was grateful for that. Of course, he probably meant for her to know in case she was ever in danger and needed his protection. He harped on safety and protecting the pack far more than would be normal… for understandable reasons. He had been inundated in conflict and threats and danger from hatching onward.

"Should I let the alpha know?" she offered, knowing that Second chose not to go into the valley, or anywhere he would be sighted by the light wings he stood watch over.

"That would be convenient," he admitted. "I had meant to catch him and Pearl when they came back from wherever they are going, but they will not be in the mood to listen and remember what I say."

"So it was Pearl." She was happy for them.

"Yes. Pearl and Ember have found love." Second stared at her. "Have you yet?"

If Lily were less perceptive, she would have worried that Second was attracted to her. He was certainly tone-deaf enough to accidentally give that impression. Letting her know where he lived, talking to her whenever they ran into each other, even showing himself at all… Asking about whether she had found love.

But she _was_ good at reading people and far too familiar with subtle, unwanted affection, and she knew Second didn't see her that way. To the best of her knowledge, that impulse had been thoroughly sullied by his upbringing and was either ignored or nonexistent now. He treated her like a student, or perhaps a friend. Warmly, but with a distance that they were both happy to maintain.

"Not yet," she answered, continuing with her work. The vines were the worst, she would have to carry those first before she could handle anything else. The flowers could come afterward, if she ever even got around to them. The vines were difficult at the best of times, and dealing with them left her too tired to care about the flowers a lot of the time.

Second huffed. "Any progress on a name?"

"I'm still thinking about it." She had a couple of different monikers in mind, and her plan was to _not_ think about them for a while, so the forgettable ones would be forgotten and leave the better candidates behind. None of them really fit him yet, but he might do something to help her choose, or inspire one she had not yet thought of. It was a sign of respect and trust that he had asked her to give him a new name, not his alpha or Storm, and she wanted to do right by him.

"Will you work faster if I help you in return?" He withdrew his teeth and carefully picked up the slab of bark.

"Sure." She was glad to have his help, and his friendship. Precious few people in the valley cared enough about her to offer either, and she still hadn't shaken her disappointment in the majority of them. They hadn't changed or learned better, someone else had stepped in and removed the problem for them. She had the nagging feeling that if the next alpha was cruel, they would easily look the other way. Thankfully, Ember wouldn't let that happen, and she was done trying to fix people's minds. Their physical maladies were much easier to deal with.

She slung the vines around, digging her teeth into them to secure her grip. It was a delicate balance, biting gently enough to not poison herself with their effects, while still getting a good enough grip to take them with her. She hoped she was doing it right, but something told her she would be learning to carry them for a long, long time to come.

_**Author's Note** _ **: So…** _**All that Remains** _ **as a whole. I intentionally chose that name to sound misleading to someone who didn't know what pathway this story took from the main branch. If you think about it,** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **would be a much better title for the story where everyone really did die, and** _**All that Remains** _ **for the one where they didn't. Or maybe not, depending on how you look at it. The ambiguity is semi-intentional on my part; I wanted it all to be misleading, just to sow confusion.**

**Also, I can't resist pointing something out about this chapter, because I'm really proud of it. That last scene with Lily and Second has a relevant, persistent metaphor built into it, one that gives a little more information about Lily's state of mind throughout. If you didn't see it, maybe go back and look for it.**

**Anyway, this was an interesting project. It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but that's as much a product of the premise as anything else. As I've said before, this option was discarded for canon partially because the other option worked better, and in following this path, I got a very good look at** _**why** _ **I felt the other one was more doable. A lot of the story arcs don't have clear ends, there's even more time-skipping to strain Pearl's efforts being believable, a lot of stuff happens off-screen, threads are snipped simply because they don't fit anymore,** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **is massively interfered with and actually doesn't** _**happen,** _ **making me feel obligated to give Lily, Crystal, Claw, and the pack satisfactory but not perfect ends… It's a lot to adjust to. Thus, the chapters having a more insular feel to some extent, and two in particular focusing entirely on non-essential characters (Valka and Viggo).**

**And of course, on top of all of that, we have the meta and stylistic flexibility offered by this** _**not** _ **actually being the second half of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **. As my beta reader,** _**Deadly-Bagel** _ **, noted, it's weird to have chapters devoted solely to bringing up and dismissing an idea from the canon story, but in this format I can do that. I didn't even really** _**try** _ **to make this 'the second half', because if it was, I would not have written the first half the way I did. Instead, this is just a somewhat freeform look at some of the changes and the likely path the story could have taken. It continues from a plot perspective, but not really from a meta or thematic one.**

**Next week, something different comes. I've got a backlog of NSSA entries now, of all types, three months worth at the moment. Some are deleted scenes, some are canon, and there's another 10-chapter AU, this one with a very different theme...**


	17. Ivy - Disillusionment (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 29.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: Ivy isn't a main character. Not even close. But he's gotten a surprising amount of attention, and in conversing with reviewers, I ended up giving a lot of clarification that just isn't present in** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **. It occurred to me that I might as well make that clarification available in story form for everyone, and depict him as I would have had UotD not been a single perspective. What follows is a fragmented look at Ivy's side of some of the events of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness.** _ **This is labeled (EC) for extra canon because it did indeed happen; we just didn't see it because we spent the entire story in Lily's mind. It's also meant to give an impression of a character, not tell a new story, so it's pretty short. We** _**know** _ **the circumstances around all of this, after all. It's the details, the reasons and the thoughts, that matter.**

* * *

Ivy watched from a distance as his mate argued with his daughter. He considered intervening… for the time it took to remember how his daughter had just beaten and broken Claw, and then dropped the idea faster than a hatchling who looked like she was about to relieve herself on him.

He decided that he was not going to do anything. Neither Pearl nor Diora would want his interference, and he wouldn't know what to say anyway. He didn't even know what they were fighting about, aside from the obvious. Pearl was breaking away, taking her independence and refusing to bow her head to anyone.

Ivy resented her. He could not do the same, so she should not be able to either. She was putting herself above him, and he had precious few people below him in the first place. It wasn't fair that one of them was moving up in the world, and he was not.

Pearl snarled something, and Diora snarled back. Ivy cringed, thinking about how bad a mood Diora would be in after this. She would take it out on him or Silva, and Silva wasn't around. He didn't even know where Silva _was_ , to bring her back and distract Diora. That might have been for the best, though; Silva had an ugly way of whining, more of a sniffle than anything, and Diora would definitely have reduced her to tears. The noise would have been obnoxious.

Diora turned her back on Pearl, and Pearl made to leave… before looking around and spotting him. Ivy cringed again, for a very similar reason to before. Pearl was above him now by virtue of being above Claw and Diora, and if she wanted to roar at him, he would have to sit there and take it. He certainly couldn't fight back.

Sure enough, Pearl approached, thumping down in front of him and making him flinch. She had every reason to dislike him, and he knew it. He hadn't cared about her any more than he did Silva.

"Listen closely," Pearl snarled. She already had his full attention just by being present, but he endeavored to remember her exact words, just in case. He knew full well what disobeying a command made in that tone of voice usually brought. Claw punished with bruises and cuts, Diora with verbal scorn, and if he had to guess, Pearl would do both.

"If you ever give Dam another egg, I'll kill you," she said with a peculiar slur. "She doesn't deserve children to turn into obedient little tools."

"If I do not try, she will kill me," he objected, horrified that she was placing him at odds with Diora. He never wanted to be in a position to anger one of those above him, and now she was putting him in that place with no way out.

"Possibly. But I'll definitely kill you if I ever find out another daughter of hers wound up with Claw."

Ivy felt his blood run cold, and he regretted not knowing where Silva was all the more. That was Diora's plan, her main occupation to pass the days, and Pearl's threat aside, if Diora did not have that, she would be all the more unbearable. One of the few good things about having a daughter was how it kept Diora off his back more often than not. Better the child bear her scorn than him.

"And I'm taking Silva away from here," she added, seemingly reading his mind. "You get one chance. Don't mess it up. I'm scarier than Dam could ever be, and you don't even want to know what my friends could do to you."

"Okay…" Ivy said, searching his mind for something to placate her. "I am sorry," he managed.

"You always are, at least to whoever scares you the most," Pearl sighed. She leaped off the rock and walked away.

Ivy stared at her until she was out of sight. He wasn't allowed to have any more eggs according to Pearl, but he _knew_ that the moment Diora accepted that Silva was gone, she would start trying for another, just like when Pearl disappeared. Disobeying Pearl would end in possible death, and disobeying Diora would end in… something. He didn't know what. Short-term, a lot of roaring and getting smacked around, and maybe Diora dragging Claw into it, in which case it really _could_ end in death, because he would be forced to resist _someone_.

He had no idea how he was going to get out of this while keeping all of his various superiors satisfied, and he hated Pearl for making his life harder.

O-O-O-O-O

Ivy lingered near Diora's rock, wishing he had something to take his mind off his predicament. Diora had gone somewhere, maybe to search for Silva, and would soon realize she was gone. After that, it would only be a matter of time until he was forced to choose between immediate punishment, or inevitable doom.

He wondered whether there was a way out of it, a way to ensure that neither Pearl nor Diora wound up thinking he had disobeyed them. Diora would only be satisfied if he helped her make another replacement egg, maybe several if the first one turned out male. But then Pearl would come for him.

An idea occurred to him, one with some merit to it. Pearl did not want Diora to raise any more children. The time between egg and hatching was a time of carefully providing warmth, and Diora often made him sit with the egg. He could just let it grow cold and die while she was gone, then pretend nothing had happened.

That could work… the first time. The next, she would probably keep the egg on her at all times. She knew he was unhappy, she just did not care, and she would suspect him of a petty act like that.

What he _needed_ was a way to make it seem like it was her own fault none of her children lasted. Ideally, she would just be struck barren, unable to produce eggs at all. That would solve his problem and hopefully bother her to no end, as a bonus.

Ivy noticed a purple glint among the rocks nearby, and his attention was drawn. He felt a flutter of pride in his chest, alone amidst the many crushing disasters of the day. At least, he thought to himself, stoking that feeling, he was not the lowest of the low. That position undoubtedly went to Lily, who was in the most disgusting place possible. Everyone knew it was wrong, and nobody pitied her.

It was comforting, seeing someone who had less than him. The only way her position could be _worse_ would be her having an egg with her own Sire, though that hadn't happened yet…

His thoughts flew off on their own path as he noticed the comparison. Lily had yet to have eggs, despite being Claw's and most assuredly given many, many chances for such things. Eggs did not take so long to come about, so she might be barren.

That seemed a little too lucky for him to stomach. It _could_ be luck, or it could be some sort of trick, something she did or did not do. Something against Claw's will, because he clearly meant to claim her as thoroughly as possible. Claw was a big, strong alpha with hard muscles and all the dominance in the world, he would have tried, and tried hard...

A clever thought occurred to Ivy, and he purred happily. If she had a trick, a way to circumvent Claw, it could be something that would work for him. He could make Diora barren, or himself, and serve all of his superiors without displeasing any of them. Even Claw, since he could force the secret from her, then inform Claw of his mate's trickery.

And if she did not have such a secret, since it was _very_ unlikely that such a thing existed and he was probably grasping at smoke, he could still benefit. He could rat her out _anyway_ , accuse her of it and watch as Claw punished her whether or not it was true. It wouldn't solve his problem, but it would make him feel better, and make Claw happy with him. Lily would suffer, but he didn't care. He had long since given up caring how others felt about anything except for when it affected him.

This would work. He stood, still purring smugly, and prepared to follow whichever path came easiest. If she had the secret, he would take it for himself and then have Claw punish her, and if she did not or refused, he would have Claw punish her anyway. It would make him feel better, seeing someone more miserable than himself, and Claw would be grateful.

O-O-O-O-O

Some time later, Ivy returned to Diora's rock, his head spinning. He felt as if he had been stepped on and then helped up with kind words, only to be threatened with another stomping if he was bad… and all by the same light wing.

"Where were you?" Diora hissed, glaring at him from the top of the rock.

"Looking for Silva," he lied. In reality, he had wandered the valley for a bit after the dizzyingly quick reversal Lily had pulled on him. It was almost sunset now.

"She is off with Claw," Diora snorted. "The one good thing in this whole day. She would have come back by now if he ignored her."

"She would have," Ivy agreed. Silva was long gone, gone with Pearl, but Diora hadn't figured that out yet. He would do his part to keep her in the dark for as long as possible. He still needed the protection Lily had used to raise herself above him, and he needed it before Diora got over her customarily short grieving stage. Postponing that process helped him. That, at least, he knew.

"If she is lucky, he will take a liking to her," Diora continued.

"Possibly." He saw absolutely nothing attractive about Silva at this age, or really any age, but Claw had different interests. That wasn't important. It wouldn't be important even if she was still around for Claw to enjoy.

What _was_ important was figuring out how he had gone into a situation with nothing to lose and all the bargaining power, and left it having given away almost everything for the thing he wanted. Lily had twisted him around until he was agreeing to lower himself, to place himself firmly under her control, yet _another_ person giving him orders when he was already struggling to work with those he had. He had not planned to accept anything except fearful, total compliance and begging.

"You are especially dull tonight," Diora complained.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Do something about it," she hissed. "Say something interesting."

"I think Claw will be totally fine once he has had time to heal," Ivy offered half-heartedly. "I heard Pearl saying that his tailfin will grow back."

"Oh, I hope so," Diora sighed, completely losing her anger at the thought of Claw. Were Ivy _remotely_ interested inher affection, he would be insulted. As it was, he knew very well that he was a second choice, an inferior option only mated because she had deigned to lower herself. She had made that clear from the very start. She wanted Claw, who was unattainable, and was settling for him instead. He was doing much the same thing, at that, but it didn't make her attitude any more tolerable. He was supposed to be _grateful_ she deigned to be with him.

He settled down on the rock, as far from Diora as could be managed, and sunk into his own thoughts. They were not pleasant, but they were more pleasant than Diora.

Now he had four light wings above him. Claw, Pearl, Lily, and Diora, in order of importance. Claw and Pearl would kill him for disobeying, Lily had the ability to set Pearl on him by inaction, and Diora would make his life miserable _and_ maybe set Claw on him if he had to defy her in order to avoid Pearl…

He could not live like this, not for long. Lily had demanded nothing of him but a promise of future obedience, and with her help he could placate Diora and more importantly Pearl, but Claw would rip him apart if he found out on his own. Slowly, and with all the strength and fury of a scorned alpha...

The obvious answer was to go to Claw _now_ , but Lily had blocked that by not giving the secret, just the effect, and not even that yet. He needed to know how to stop eggs, not just to have it while he served Lily. Then he could betray her to Claw, be rid of her, and have all he needed.

Hopefully, he would find out before Lily tried to make him do anything. He would have to obey if she did. She held just as much power as the rest of them did, and that made him angry. _She_ was supposed to be the lowest of the low, not him! She should be suffering! If he could make that happen, he would.

O-O-O-O-O

Ivy leaned over and threw up into the narrow alley between boulders, his heart pounding fiercely. Root's pained moans could be heard even now, but he was scared for himself, not for Root. Claw was fuming mad, and Ivy had been made to place himself at the center of that ire, to be the face Claw would associate with the proposition that had led to this, to be the focus of Claw's attention, with all that entailed… But not in the way he would have wanted.

If it had worked, if Claw had conceded and let Root live with a few bruises, this plan would have worked out fine for him, which was why he had not come up with some believable excuse to get out of it. But now, it was all going to fall apart, and Ivy had no problem abandoning his newest alpha in favor of the infinitely more brutal old one. Lily was not capable of tearing eyes out or killing, and he wanted her to suffer anyway.

Ivy gulped nervously, pulling back the rest of his bile, and breathed shallowly until he had his body under control. Then, he flew up into the air, seeking out Claw, who had left the scene.

Claw wasn't hard to find; his furious snarling could be heard from the air, and his angrily pacing form was obvious in front of the small cave used for fighting. Ivy didn't know why he had gone back there, but that wasn't important anyway.

"Alpha!" Ivy cried out, diving down to land a safe distance away.

"Traitor," Claw snarled. "You started that."

"I was told to!" Ivy blurted out. "I have been spying for you!"

"Spying?" Claw growled, hooked by the unexpected excuse. "What does that mean?"

"There is a light wing who is trying to work against you, alpha," Ivy said as confidently as he could manage. "I found out by chance, and she tried to extort me into joining her. I let her think I fell for it, then waited until she did something I could prove. She told me to do it, but I thought it would not go that far-"

Claw lunged forward and slammed into him bodily, knocking him to the ground. A paw went to his throat. "You worked against me," Claw snarled.

"Only to prove she was," Ivy wheezed. He had no trouble breathing yet, Claw was not pressing down all that forcefully – he would have to press much harder to make Ivy pant – but the anticipation felt like it was strangling him on its own. "It was her, I know who, I can tell you."

"Tell me, then," Claw growled.

"I have done well?" Ivy asked hopefully.

Claw seemed to consider that. His claws slid out, then retreated again as the moments passed.

"Yes," he eventually decided. "But do not do that again. Not that you will have the chance." The paw shifted, and Claw kicked him in the head.

Ivy put his paws up around his ringing head and lay there, defenseless and submissive, weathering the strikes until Claw got bored and backed away.

"Get up," Claw growled. "And tell me who it was."

"Lily," Ivy said, staggering to his paws. "It was Lily." This, at least, had gone right. After tonight, he would be back down to three superiors… though he still did not know what Lily was giving him to stop eggs. He hadn't meant to betray her until he had that knowledge, but now that plan was gone, ruined by this. Ruined by Root making Claw mad and getting his own eyes torn out.

O-O-O-O-O

Ivy ran through the forest, the sounds of conflict fading behind him. Diora was back there somewhere, and Claw, and Lily. His alphas were all fighting for control of the whole pack, not just him, and he had been forgotten in the confusion.

He slowed, panting heavily, and began walking in a random direction. He wondered whether it would be best to just keep going, to leave the valley forever. Lily's side had been winning, and she had to know that he had betrayed her _again_. No matter what she said, she would remember and punish him.

But to keep going would be to fly out into the unknown, and he wasn't brave enough to do that. He didn't want to leave, he just wanted to be on top of the pack _here_. To have power, to not bow to anyone. He would be content to just _not_ have Diora, or Lily, or Claw in his life. To have a mate who _he_ could berate and abuse, so he would not be the one taking the abuse, for once. Or at least in the right way and by the right paws–

The sound of female voices broke the ominous silence, and he crept toward the noises. The fight was over, probably, and he had to know who was in charge. If Claw, he would return without mentioning that he had fled at all.

If Lily… He didn't know what he would do.

The voices resolved into one he knew and one he did not, the latter camouflaged. Lily stood out in the open, by a bloody mess of a body, and spoke with someone.

A whiff of the corpse came his way, and he gagged. The scent was vile, but also _Claw_ , and it was as impossible as it was disgusting. Claw was dead.

Somehow, he had not thought that Claw would die. Lily, crippled and weak as she was, was definitely mortal, but Claw was not supposed to be, not really. Season-cycles of watching a perfect, brutal, dominant alpha hold sway over the pack had driven any idea of said alpha's fallibility right out of his mind.

Something fell into place as he stared at Claw's mutilated body. If Claw of all people could die, then anyone could. They could be killed, and if they were dead then they couldn't be above him.

The camouflaged voice bid farewell, and Lily stupidly remained in the forest, alone and extremely vulnerable. Ivy decided that he was going to free himself and put himself above Lily once more. Killing her would be good. She had dragged him into this, refusing to stay in her place and suffer for his benefit, and now he would get his revenge. He was not a strong light wing, but she was weak and he was done listening to her. She had killed _his_ alpha, and now he would have his revenge.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Now, to answer a few more questions:**

_**Why is Ivy like this?** _ **Obviously, we first see him as a petty, self-absorbed servant of the desires of anyone he sees as higher than him, and totally unsympathetic toward anyone he thinks is worse off than himself. He only gets worse from there, and while those developments can be partially blamed on outside pressure and his own actions backfiring throughout the story, he was a very unlikable person from the moment we met him. Diora is likely at fault for that, as well as the general nature of the pack, how Claw treats the males, and whatever else is in Ivy's past, along with whatever he was like long before any of those factors came into play. I left a few hints toward all of that, but the focus of this chapter was more current events, not his life story.**

_**Is Ivy redeemable?** _ **In the right setting, with positive reinforcement from both those around him, and whoever is above him, plenty of kindness, and no reason to strike at others, I would say probably, yes, as he is capable of acting as others wish, and we are seeing him at his worst here, not at his best (but, as my beta reader says, very few people would** _**not** _ **be redeemable with all of that at play). It depends a lot on how much of his behavior is learned, and how much is integral to his character, which I have not set in stone here. But it would take time, and of course the canon story is nowhere close to a favorable setting for that. I might one day take on that challenge in an AU, but as of now it's not a high priority.**


	18. Ember - Restraint (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 53.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: Simply put, Lily's point of view is limited. She misses a lot of the drama of Ember's intervention in chapter 53 of Usurpation of the Darkness, seeing it from afar and then being carried away from it. So, here's an optional, alternative viewpoint from someone more closely involved, one that also gives some insight into one of our more important characters after a long time away from him.**

* * *

Blades had to be tested before they could be considered well-made. A faulty work might appear strong up until it shattered at the slightest impact, imperfections in the metal ruining it from the inside.

Ember knew this principle well; he had made weapons in one of his childhoods, and though nowadays he made more interesting, less violent things when the mood struck, he remembered how it was done. The idea could be applied to more than physical objects, too.

That was likely why it had come to mind now, as he flew out toward a menacing fleet of ships in the distance. He was, in essence, about to test a metaphorical blade. Would it hold, or would it shatter?

"I am going to smack our scouts so many times that their scales turn red and fall off," a young female growled coarsely from nearby, though only a faint blur in the air marked her presence. "They are _right there_. How in the world did we miss this?"

"They're moving faster than most ships would," Ember noted. He wasn't about to excuse this pack's scouts, he didn't know whether they were slacking off or not, but he would offer insight into the human side of things. "This fleet might have been much further out as of last night." He was fascinated by the smoke rising from some of the larger ships, and by what that meant…

But all of that was secondary to the mingled fear and apprehension in his heart. He was flying out to rescue his mate _and_ test a set of rules that had never been tested before, not since his entire family had come up with them at his behest. Academic interest in the evolution of warships was _not_ a priority compared to all of that.

"And we _did_ pull some of them in and shorten the range of the rest," the combative young female conceded, sounding angry with herself. In the short time he had known her, she had always acted either angry or proud. To be fair, he had only seen her showing off what Beryl taught her, ordering people around, or freaking out about the alpha being kidnapped right under their noses. Those were situations that provoked certain emotions.

They flew on in silence, and Ember stared out at the distant fleet. Somewhere in that array of ships, Pearl was waiting. The same could be said for Lily, but he definitely had a bias as to which of them came first to his thoughts.

She would be hopeful. She knew he was going to come for her, and if anything, she might be annoyed that it had taken an entire day for him to wade through the mess the attack had left behind, find out that she had been taken, and find out where the enemy had gone.

She wouldn't be too scared, but she would be worried _for_ him, and for the blade about to be tested. He didn't consider that much better, though it was certainly an improvement over abject terror or despair.

Assuming she was able to feel anything at all. He snarled and shook his head, driving out that parasitic fear. The enemy had proven capable of killing, so taking someone alive meant wanting them alive. She would be alive and safe.

And if she was not, he might just end up smashing his metaphorical sword over his knee before going to war, though she wouldn't want that.

"I am going with you," Cara said, breaking the silence with a simple statement of defiance.

"No, you have agreed to fly ahead and scout out their forces as I approach and draw eyes, to decide upon an appropriate strike force size, and then to return to the valley in order to retrieve such a force in the event that I fail," Ember reiterated, speaking as if she was just in need of a reminder, not acknowledging and ignoring said plans.

"I want to see what you do," she said bluntly. "How you think you are getting anyone out on your own."

"It's not something that can be imitated or learned," Ember growled, guessing that Beryl teaching her had given her a reason to think she should watch and learn.

"I do not care," Cara huffed. "You cannot make me go back, and you will not even know if I do until afterward. I am just being polite by letting you know instead of saying nothing."

Ember sighed and resigned himself to one more person knowing his secret. He was glad bringing Cara herself along with such plans had at least dissuaded half the pack from coming too. "Fine," he growled.

"So what am I going to see, that you do not want known?" Cara asked. "How are you going to get them back?"

"I am going to make an entrance, turn into one of them, and bargain with their lives as collateral," Ember said. He was also going to either be bluffing, or proving the metaphorical sword faulty, but he saw no reason to tell Cara that.

Cara didn't need to know exactly what he was capable of if he fully exploited the abilities Vithvarandi had burdened him with. She also didn't need to know that his whole family had come up with a simple rule for him to follow, so that he knew he was not turning into a monster like Vithvarandi. Nor did she need to know that he wanted to set a good example for Thaw, and to be able to live with himself, _and_ to rescue Pearl.

There were a lot of things she didn't need to know, and though she immediately began asking the obvious, incredulous questions, she didn't touch on any of those things. Those concerns were for him and his family, and nobody else.

O-O-O-O-O

Ember knew he had not been spotted yet. He had taken great care to ensure as much, flying through the lower layers of the clouds, making himself cold and wet in exchange for being almost impossible to spot.

Cara would not have been seen either, camouflaged and scouting around right about now. They were alert, aware of what they were sailing toward, but the alarm had not been sounded. Not yet.

He intended to be in and making an impression fast enough that the enemy, whoever they were, would be reacting too slowly to make much of an impact. This plan had its flaws, and not knowing how his dramatic entrance would be received was definitely one of them. But it was fast and didn't endanger anyone but himself, and he didn't have any obviously better options, so he was going to go through with it anyway.

Thankfully, he didn't have to guess which ship held the leader of this armada; only one flew a red and black flag at the top of its squat, smoke-belching form. That was as good a sign as any that their leader would be there.

He inhaled, squinted, and dove.

The wind screamed by him, and he roared as loudly as he could. The largest ship had a metal exterior and deck, another oddity he would love to get a closer look at, and he was headed at it far too quickly to pull out even if he wanted to.

But unlike most dragons, he didn't _need_ to pull out. Especially not with a ship this sturdy under him. At the right moment, a couple of heartbeats away from smashing into the deck of the ship, he called up the unnatural fire that had reshaped his lives years ago. It would not hold, he had lost the ability to do that, but it would exist for the time needed to change his form, and that was more than enough-

He _stopped_ , a strange, unnatural sensation akin to being suddenly slowed to a standstill by an impossibly stiff breeze, except without even the pressure of the wind on his body. The fires _resisted_ the impact in the same way that allowed him to bend iron, punch out dragons, and otherwise break the laws of the world around him, and he felt nothing except a much gentler pressure and a sudden absence of movement.

His body continued to change in the heartbeat that followed, and when the blue flames receded he was human…

And, he noticed, standing in a crater. The metal sheet covering the deck – which, he saw, was designed quite ingeniously with grooves to provide traction and sluice away water – had buckled and scorched at the impact. The wood under it, if there was any, had fared no better, leaving him in a waist-deep hole as wide around as his dragon form's torso.

Sailors of various ethnicities, some of which he didn't recognize, stared in the sort of shocked surprise that precluded action. A few were reaching for weapons, but they stilled when they noticed him watching.

Already, he was certain these were not dragon hunters, not of the sort he knew. Hunters were not, as a general rule, disciplined. Not in the face of an attack, or whatever they thought this was. Hunters were Vikings, and that meant fighting, not waiting to see what happened.

"I am here to negotiate with whoever leads this fleet," Ember called out, remaining where he was until he was sure he had been heard and understood. Then he climbed out of the crater he had made, because threatening people while his head was lower than their waists just felt wrong. "Bring him here, or I will be forced to find him myself."

Nobody questioned his right to summon their leader; falling like a comet out of the cloudy dusk sky _did_ have its uses as an intimidation tactic. A few of the ones closest to the ship's multi-level cabin slipped inside, presumably to spread the word.

Others subtly palmed knives or more obvious weapons, but none made a move. He suspected that nobody wanted to be the first to find out exactly how he would react to being attacked. That would stop being important if everyone attacked at once, but nobody present had the authority to order such a thing. Or so he assumed; maybe they were all peaceful cool-headed individuals who just happened to have sent out mute dragons to attack an isolated nest of light wings.

There was a scuffle of boot on metal behind him, and he spun around, instinctively bursting into flame. The transformation could not be held in place, not anymore, but it _could_ be reversed at any time, and doing so provided him with short-lived protection.

The sailor behind him hastily put away his sword and backed up, making distance. Ember stared at him as the flames, only barely out in the first place, receded into his palms. "Don't try it," he warned.

"Wasn't going to," the sailor said quickly, his voice rough and displaying an odd accent Ember didn't recognize.

"Good," Ember said, not believing him in the slightest. He still turned his back on the man a moment later. This was, at its core, a lot of posturing and misdirection. So long as he acted confident and far too dangerous to be messed with, the odds were that he'd go unattacked until someone higher up ordered otherwise. Even if in reality he didn't have much more protection than it outwardly appeared.

The door to the ship's cabin swung open and a white-haired man with a thin face and a haughty face strode out. There was an odd look to him, like he was disappointed in something.

"It is not everyday someone manages to dent my ship," the man said coldly. "I have half a mind to demand repayment."

"Which is more expensive, repairing a dent or replacing a score of men?" Ember asked in a similarly cold tone. "This achieved the same effect."

The white-haired man nodded. "Intimidation," he assessed. "Clever. That won't stop you from being riddled in crossbow bolts the moment I say so."

"No, but other things will," Ember said calmly. "We are not here to bargain with my life."

"Then what are we here for?" the man asked. "I don't even know who, or _what_ , you are."

"Angry," Ember replied. "That is what I am. You're going to appease me, and in return I'm _not_ going to demolish this entire fleet."

Not that he wanted to do as much, even though he probably could. That was the path he ended up some sort of monster, if not exactly like Vithvarandi then terrible in his own unique way. Even if it was for a good cause, slaughtering hundreds of men wasn't something he could just forget afterward.

"Assuming you are capable of that," the white-haired man said, "and that is assuming _much_ regardless of your display of force, what would be needed to appease you?"

"You took two captives this morning, two white dragons, one crippled and one not," Ember said. "I want the able-bodied one freed right now, and I want the injured one returned to the nearest shore." He wasn't stupid enough to bargain for Lily's freedom without also getting her a way off this fleet. Beryl had told him that carrying her was a bad idea, so this was the easiest solution.

"A large price," the white-haired one said. "But we're getting ahead of ourselves. I am Grimmel the Grisly, leader of the Grim Hunters."

Ember tilted his head. "I'm sensing a theme," he said dryly.

He was _also_ sensing trickery, especially as he could see movement on the ships all around them. Grimmel was stalling for time, because every passing moment only increased his bargaining position, letting his men and possibly dragons position themselves to better attack if the word was given.

"My name is my own, and my epithet twice earned," Grimmel said defensively, scowling at Ember. "What is yours?"

"Ember," he said simply. "Are we done stalling, or should we boast of our achievements to waste more time on your behalf? I gave you my demands."

"You did not tell me why I should not have you slaughtered," Grimmel said angrily.

"Because you do not have the strength in ships, men, or dragons, to accomplish it," Ember said coldly. "That is not an option. Your options are give me what I want, or suffer the consequences. This is not a bargain so much as a demand."

"I could have the dragons you want slaughtered," Grimmel threatened.

"Could you really?" Ember asked, hiding his relief. Such a threat meant they were both still alive. "Could you do it before I found them? Before I killed you?"

"Yes," Grimmel said without hesitation, though Ember suspected he was either overestimating himself, underestimating the danger he was being threatened with, or bluffing. "So give me something in return."

"What would that be?" Ember asked.

"You flew in as a dragon," Grimmel stated. "It looked like a Night Fury."

"It was," Ember conceded, seeing no reason to hide what they had somehow already deduced. He was reluctantly impressed that anyone had identified his species in the extremely short time he had spent diving and thus little more than a roughly cylindrical blur.

"Allow me to see it up close in addition to sparing my fleet, and I will consider it a bargain struck," Grimmel offered.

Ember noticed the surprise that showed on the majority of the sailors silently watching their confrontation. Some of them frowned, others glanced over at Grimmel in disbelief, and others still scowled angrily. He didn't quite know what to make of that, except that they believed Grimmel was serious in offering such a thing, and that it wasn't a fair bargain from the average sailor's perspective.

"I will let you look, and _only_ that, for a short period of time once the injured dragon has been carried to shore, and the uninjured one freed," he offered. "I am not so stupid as to pay up front."

"Acceptable," Grimmel agreed, smiling widely. "Make yourself comfortable, it will take me a short time to arrange as much, and I of course would prefer you stay here in the meantime, as an assurance that you will keep your part of the deal."

"Of course," Ember said carefully. "I have your word on all of this, correct? They will be released as I specified, unharmed and unhindered, and I will not be attacked or trapped while I am here?"

"You have my word," Grimmel replied.

O-O-O-O-O

A short time later, Ember sat atop a coiled stack of rope. He hadn't _expected_ to be lounging around an enemy warship, but he did his best to look like this was all part of the plan. The sailors all gave him an extremely wide berth, abandoning the midsection of the deck in order to avoid him.

It was much the same sort of treatment he might have received as a dragon lurking on their deck after bargaining with their leader, much to his amusement. It was not often that his human form was treated with such caution.

And best of all, he had held to the rules he wanted to live by. He had done nothing that a human and a dragon together could not have done. There had been no intentional killing for the purpose of taking memories, no outright slaughter, no immoral theft of bodies to use against their fellows. There would be no need to kill off stolen forms afterward, and he would not have nightmares about this night.

He had set a good example for Thaw, who might be in desperate need of exactly that at some point in the future.

Assuming this all went as promised, that was. He was not stupid enough to take that for granted yet. He eyed Grimmel, who had scrawled out orders on a parchment and had it catapulted over to the next ship, and was now watching him from the other side of the ship. They were both waiting, and neither of them felt like making small talk.

There was activity on the other ship, and two Deathgrippers emerged from the hold, stalking onto the deck. Ember watched with interest as two handlers followed them up. He hadn't seen them before, thanks to being asleep during the attack, and only knew they were apparently mute and unable to be reasoned with through hearsay.

A net was brought out and arranged on the deck, and men armed with spears formed a narrow corridor to it from the cabin. A light wing was dragged out-

Ember strode over to the side of the ship, ignoring the sailors who scattered to avoid him, and strained to see which it was. It was dark and cloudy, so there was no glint to help him identify her, but when she woke he heard yells about 'the cripple', among other things, which told him enough. They had already gotten the nets most of the way up around her in a fashion clearly meant to tangle as much as it was meant to distribute weight, and when she woke she struggled impotently.

Then she lurched back at just the right moment, and a man's arm was snapped like a dry twig. Surprisingly, there was no retribution from the man's comrades.

"I see one," Ember called out to Grimmel. "Where is the other?"

"All in good time," Grimmel assured him. "Since you see we are serious about honoring this agreement, maybe you will save us both some time and hold to your end now?"

"Not a chance," Ember said firmly. "Only once they are both safely out of your reach."

Grimmel said nothing more, and soon Lily was being carried away. As far as Ember could tell, which was very little given his current form was not good at seeing in the dark, she was alert and doing her best to stand upright in the swaying net.

The Deathgrippers, one carrying her and the other following it, flew over to their ship and circled above.

"Pearl might still be captive," Lily called down. It was all she had time to say; the Deathgrippers did not tarry, circling once and then flying onward, into the night and toward the distant mountains.

"It will be released on the shore, as promised," Grimmel assured him. "And there is the other."

Ember looked over, and his heart soared with Pearl as she leaped into the night sky and promptly flamed herself, disappearing from view. Lily's warning had been for nothing, though he appreciated that she had thought to give it, given Grimmel could have claimed they let her leave from somewhere out of sight and he would have had no easy way to prove or disprove it.

"Now?" Grimmel asked.

"Not yet," Ember growled, returning to his makeshift seat. "Not until they are out of reach." He would not risk anything, especially not when everything was going to plan.

"So be it," Grimmel sighed. "Might I ask why you care? One wonders what, exactly, your reason for doing this would be."

"You can ask, but you won't get an answer," Ember said. "What are _your_ intentions here?"

He hadn't expected a reply, but to his surprise Grimmel answered readily enough. "We lost a ship here, and a Deathgripper. It is our custom to investigate losses, either to catch deserters or to avenge our fallen brothers and sisters."

"And it's the latter," Ember guessed.

"I hope you do not have any ties to the nest of vermin we're going to be exterminating in the coming days," Grimmel said coldly. "We will not be turned from that goal."

"I'm just passing through," Ember lied.

"It doesn't matter," Grimmel asserted. "We will not make a deal like this a second time."

"I'm surprised you made it once," Ember admitted.

"Is _now_ enough time?" Grimmel asked, changing the subject rather abruptly. "Or must we wait until midnight, or dawn?"

Ember smelled a rat. Specifically, a white-furred one who was way too shifty about this. "And if I asked why you wanted to see a Night Fury?"

"I would explain once I have," Grimmel offered. "So?"

"I suppose we can get this over with," Ember conceded. The Deathgrippers carrying Lily were well on their way now, and he would bet his best knife that Pearl was trailing them, ready to intervene if something went wrong. Maybe Cara too, though it was too early yet to expect her return with a raiding party.

He stood from the rope pile, shrugged his shoulders, and burst into flames. The last thing he saw before the fire covered his eyes was Grimmel's expectant face…

And the first thing he saw when the fire receded was a downright disturbing smile. Grimmel's hand twitched, and Ember immediately leaped upward, willing himself to shift. Several projectiles passed through the empty air below him, and as he reached the apex of his leap, four Deathgrippers took off from the ships around him. He was fully in flames by the time he felt his stomach lurch as his upward progress ended, and he landed blindly.

Using his flames like this was awkward; he had to time his transformations correctly, lest he throw himself out over the ocean and fall in while changing. He landed on the deck, denting it in a different place, and blindly lashed out around himself. The moment the flames cleared enough for him to see, he oriented himself and changed again. Arrows, crossbow bolts, and swords were shrugged off like rain on scales while his fire was up, but he was acutely aware of how vulnerable he would be the moment he stopped switching back and forth.

Not that he planned to sit around and let them attack him. He leaped up into the air and spun as the flames receded once more, now capable of flight. The Deathgrippers all dove, attacking him from above, and he took the opportunity to duck forward and put them between himself and the ship he had just left.

He had traded a momentary reprieve from human attacks for four unreasonably violent dragons and four riders, but he could deal with those more easily. He led them up into the sky, dodging talons and blasts of an odd sort of fire, and ducked into the clouds. From there, it was as easy as flying straight away in a random direction. They lost him almost immediately, to the point where it felt _too_ easy.

He flew away for a little while longer, just to be sure, then ducked below the clouds and headed back to the valley. As he flew, he thought about what he had learned, and what it meant.

Obviously, in the future nobody should trust Grimmel's word, even in oaths given. Looking back, it was obvious that he had never intended on keeping it past obtaining what he wanted, a clear shot at a Night Fury.

That aim in itself was also telling; Ember knew all too well how prized his species was, but the _enthusiasm_ Grimmel had displayed fit well with the prisoner's words on the subject. There was something personal there, a need or a desire.

But whatever the reason, it was also important that Grimmel's people weren't here for Night Furies. They were here to avenge their people, and they had already set their sights on the light wing pack. Beryl's presence, or the presence of the other dark wings Ember had brought, was not a deciding factor.

He hummed to himself, satisfied with those conclusions. They were not _good_ things, but they were good to know, and Lily was a very smart dragon. She and Beryl would be able to put it all together and come up with some plan of action.

Really, he found himself to be in a very good mood. His mate was undoubtedly safe, and he had managed to keep to his morals. Admittedly through the use of threats and intimidation, and some very risky moments where he could have gotten hurt, but still. He had saved his mate, not killed a single person, and proven that his first solution to things did not have to be killing, stealing bodies and memories, and taking what he wanted.

Even if such things were perhaps acceptable against dragon killers set on wiping out a pack of his fellow Furies…

He shook his head, dismissing that thought. Even if it would have solved everything to massacre them all, doing so would be wrong, and he had an example to set. When Thaw asked about tonight, he was going to be able to say that it had been done without relying on immoral abilities, and he was going to ensure that lesson stuck with him. Maybe as a last resort, but never as a first one, and in a world as wide and full of options as this one, there were always alternatives.

He was a long way from the depressed, despairing dragon of five season-cycles ago, and he intended to stay that way; for his own sake, the sake of the world, and for his son, who might need as many good examples as possible in dealing with very similar problems.

Ember dismissed his introspection, bothered more than he would have admitted by the thought of Thaw dealing with the same worries and moral quandaries he was stuck with, and focused on the moment. Pearl was safe, Lily was likely to be dropped off safe and sound-

A thought occurred to him, something he had missed in the midst of escaping and then patting himself on the back, and he snarled, leaning forward to fly faster. Grimmel had planned this from the start, and that could also mean sending out orders to betray Lily once she and the Deathgrippers were out of sight.

Ember's satisfaction evaporated, and he only hoped that he would not be too late.


	19. Cara and Beryl - Recounting (DS)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains** _ **and events of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 52.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is a small thing, but an interesting one from a meta perspective. Originally, back when Beryl and Cara accidentally showed themselves to the first enemy ship, these following scenes were my answer to Lily not being present, recountings placed in the chapter itself, not from her perspective. Not only did these scenes become somewhat obsolete as I rewrote, this was the** _**only** _ **time I ever used the technique, so it was very out of place. Still, there wasn't anything really** _**wrong** _ **with them aside from that, so I figured they could go here, now that the latest developments they could possibly spoil have been published.**

* * *

" _There they are," Beryl growled, flying high above the clouds. "The dragons Lily sent must not have checked this far out."_

_They were only a little further than the scouts would have gone… but she couldn't argue the most definitely odd wooden structure sitting on top of the waves. "Do we go back?"_

" _No, we check them out." Beryl swerved around to look at her. "You check them out. Are you up for this?"_

" _I volunteered, so yes," she confirmed. "What do you need me to do?"_

" _Get in close. Count the No-scaled-not-prey, and look for large shiny grey structures that seem complicated. Those are traps or weapons. I want to know how many of each, if you can." Beryl warbled curiously. "Got it?"_

_She liked how he had put it. A simple request, and a useful one. "On it."_

" _Don't get caught."_

" _How could I?" she retorted, spinning to the side and firing into the air, diving through the flames and knowing she was no longer visible. He could not do the same. That was why she was here._

_As she got closer, the wooden structure became easier to see… and all the stranger for it. She ignored all of the odd little details, focusing on what Beryl had requested. How many shiny grey things, and how many No-scaled-not-prey._

_The metal things were easy, but the No-scaled-not-prey blended in with their odd contraptions, all colors dull and faded, browns and greys mixing to obscure them. It really didn't help that she was not good at picking their foreign shapes out from the background when they weren't moving. She got closer, close enough to have to be careful not to rock their odd platforms with the wind from her wings. She was not visible, so it was safe to do so._

_Right until something shot out from the mass of unknown things and tangled her, cruelly wrapping her wings. She heard the whistle of the wind and oddly weak cheering as she fell to the water, the icy cold washing away the heat of her disguise even as she sunk. How had they seen her?! It wouldn't matter in a few moments, because-_

_The same tangle of vine that had impossibly picked her out of the air now pulled up, rescuing her from the death it had threatened a moment before. She could not move, but at least she could inhale without death following, now out of the water._

_Out of the water, rolling, tumbling and becoming more and more tangled with every jolt. She flailed wildly as she moved. Her wings hit hard objects, sending jolts of shock through her, and the oddly smooth bark of the mutilated trees below her rubbed against her scales._

_Then dense weights slammed into her, and she rolled once more, hitting a solid object. Her head spun._

_When she regained her wits, it was too late. Grey shapes penned her in, and she knew all too well what they were. Beryl had described cages, and she knew she was in one. It could be nothing else._

_Then there was a screech of rage, and a babble she did not understand. Beryl was attacking in an attempt to save her. He had no camouflage, but that had not ended up doing her any good in the end, and he knew far more than she. She had to hope he could get her, and annoyingly could not so much as watch, so tangled that her body was stuck where it had landed, her head wedged against a corner of the cage._

_Exclamations, chattering, cheering. Loud thumps, screams, and all too soon more cheering, the sounds of a struggle. They had gotten him too._

_Then, after all the sounds had died down, a surprisingly soft paw grabbed her ears and pulled them out between the grey bars, holding them though she tried to pull away-_

_Cold metal clamped down on her left ear, far stronger than the paw. Pulling away felt like she was at risk of pulling her ear straight off of her head, so she stopped trying. What was the point?_

_Then, in a moment of agony, she stopped caring about the why. The tips of her ears were on fire, agony to the point of shock. She pulled away harder, her body straining to-_

_Untangled, unrestrained, free. Shallow cuts pricked her as the vines were haphazardly sliced, and the bars in one place swung away. What was going on? She no longer cared, maddened by pain and for some reason by uncontrollable fear._

_The No-scaled-not-prey moved out of her way as she stumbled out of the cage, staring unnervingly calmly, watching her. She saw Beryl lying on the deck, so swathed in brown vines that he could not move, probably unconscious…_

_And she fled, because these creatures were letting her leave. To fight would be futile. They were so confident they let her go._

* * *

**And then later, after he was rescued, Beryl gave his own little recounting.**

* * *

_They were skilled, far more skilled than normal hunters, and that was ignoring how they had taken down Cara while she was camouflaged. They fought as a group, trusting each other to cover them, hitting him whenever his attention was on someone else, even tossing each other weapons whenever needed, passing around their means of attack and defense without a care for their own safety, though they were too good for him to take advantage of it._

_Hunters were bad, but these No-scaled-not-prey were something else entirely. There was little fear, and no panicking whatsoever, though he was far from an easy target._

_Maybe it would have been different had he waited, but for all he knew Cara was to be slaughtered the moment they got a chance, so he could not wait. So here he was, fighting a losing battle against an enemy he had underestimated._

_He was good, but not good enough. Soon enough they had him pinned under ropes and weights, a haphazard assortment of objects pressing down on him, weighing him down. That was it. There was no further pain, no spiteful inflicting of petty injuries to celebrate._

" _Harl, get the proof," one said absently, cleaning a shallow gash on his arm. "We still want that."_

" _Got it," another No-scaled-not-prey grunted, moving over to Cara's cage. He pulled a strange metal device over, two slabs connected by a rod and lever, and put it by where her head was._

_Beryl might have cried out to Cara, telling her to move, for she could not see the contraption, but his mouth was pinned shut by a taunt assortment of ropes._

_The No-scaled-not-prey spent a few moments wrestling her ears out from between the bars, and managed more by luck than skill to get one under the device. The metal was swiftly moved by lever to firmly pin her ear._

_Then Harl grunted again, pulling out a knife. "What's our mark this time around?"_

" _Just cut the tops off," another answered. "But make sure the rest of us are ready first. We need the cage door open and the launchers primed. Give us a second."_

_There was a flurry of movement, the No-scaled-not-prey moving into position, leaving Beryl pinned with only a few guards. He bided his time, subtly testing at his makeshift restraints. They were resourceful, to hold him like this, but if he could find a weak point, it would be their undoing._

_Then there was a shriek of pain, and Harl fell back, clutching two palm-sized chunks of white scale and flesh. Beryl felt vaguely sick at the single glimpse he had caught of that-_

_But his heart soared along with Cara as she… was allowed to leave. These No-scaled-not-prey had no idea how big of a mistake that was._

_And, given it was their first mistake in all of this, he was glad to know they were capable of screwing up just like anyone else. All that aside, he didn't want to wait for rescue. He kept testing his bonds._

" _We leavin' it like that? If it gets loose, we might not take it down in time," a No-scaled-not-prey with a high voice remarked._

_Wait, was that a woman? He wasn't surprised a woman could hold her own here, but the hunters he had fought in the past were exclusively men, for whatever reason. Another oddity, one that worried him. These No-scaled-not-prey were smarter than average, it seemed, from ignoring the limiting customs of only employing men, to fighting as a team, and to all the contraptions littering the deck of this ship._

" _We can put it out, but I don't wanna be the one to try and figure out the stuff he gave us," another remarked. "Thor knows he'd never believe us if his stuff killed it. Best we do this the old-fashioned way."_

_The old-fashioned way seemed to involve a lot of… nothing. The No-scaled-not-prey took turns watching him, sometimes adding to the web of ropes and weights holding him motionless, but otherwise leaving him alone. They seemed content to ignore him… mostly._

" _So, how many points ye think it'll net us?" One of them asked, idly spinning his sword._

" _Points? We'll just straight-up win the exercise with this thing. You know how he is." Harl looked up from a needle, thread, and two sickening chunks of white scale and flesh. "These," and at that he held up the tips of Cara's ears strung together on a thread, dangling macabrely, "are good, but a Night Fury is great. No one will top that."_

" _Aye, and a live one," the woman sneered. "He'll go nuts."_

_That was worrying. Given he still hadn't found a weak point in his frustratingly thorough restraints, Beryl hoped Cara came soon._

O-O-O-O-O

_Time had passed. It should not have taken this long… but they were here. A lot of them, by the sound._

_Sound, because they were coming in brazenly, from all directions, screeching angrily._

_Now the No-scaled-not-prey were panicking, which made Beryl savagely satisfied. He had taught these dragons, so he could partially claim the reaction his own appearance had failed to elicit._

" _Must be a nest," one of them yelled worriedly. "We should'a kept the Light Fury!"_

" _You know the rules!" another replied angrily, gripping his sword. "We couldn't! We had to let it loose, though I'm regretting it now!"_

" _Aye, yer definitely regretting it!" the woman yelled angrily, firing an arrow into the sky, totally missing the nearest dragon. The light wings were circling now, slowly closing in. "We're not making it out o' this alive!"_

" _Then we'll take as many of the monsters with us as we can!" Another yelled. "For the archipelago!"_

" _For the archipelago!" the rest of the crew shouted in agreement. They readied their weapons, staring grimly into the face of doom._

_Doom brought by dragons Beryl had happened to prep for something vaguely similar to this. They knew not to fly into the waiting weapons of these No-scaled-not-prey. Instead…_

_He heard the rising shriek of the doom that would deny these No-scaled-not-prey the glory of a final stand, and closed his eyes, hoping nobody hit him directly… or sank the ship. That would really be bad luck._

_The explosion did not surprise him, given he was expecting it, but it still hurt a little, a series of shocks that forced him against the strongest parts of his entrapment, cutting into the skin between his scales. Small injuries, but annoying._

_Then there were thumps on the deck, drafts of wind. He opened his eyes and began struggling, hoping to draw attention to himself. Someone saw him, pointed him out, and he was soon free._

_Cara caught his eye. She was snarling and blasting a corpse, her eyes slits._

" _It's over," he called out. "We need to leave. This ship might not stay above water for long, depending on how much damage you all did."_

" _I am ready to go," Aven called out, sounding peculiarly rushed._

" _Fine," Cara spat. "They are all dead anyway." They rose into the air, Beryl following as quickly as his wings would allow, cramping from being help out, motionless, for hours on end. The night was more than half over, all in all._

" _Aven, what is that?" Holly growled. "We are not supposed to eat them."_

" _I do 'ot wan' to," Aven replied, her voice muffled. "Bu' I thin' thi' one's s'ill alive!"_

_A prisoner… but why would Aven take one? It didn't matter, he could find out what she wanted with it later. "She can keep it! Just be sure it's not awake to stab you as you fly! Someone watch it for her!" It was a good thing they weren't that far from the valley._


	20. Gold - Suave (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 13.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: A simple premise, but one that did not come to me on my own. The credit for inspiring this little AU goes to Deadly-Bagel, who commented on one of the scenes involving Gold in chapter 10 of UotD, dropping this little parody of that story's summary:**

' _ **Future alpha, mated to the current alpha's oldest daughter. Gold is a Light Fury, one of many. His chosen female is alluring, witty, and malleable. Or so he thinks. His disillusionment is brutally thorough, but he isn't one to give up. Rated M.'**_

**Of course, I couldn't resist trying my hand at what he further qualified as a story centered around Gold, with the premise that he does not disappear that fateful night, and thus that he ends up mated to Lily, and what comes of that, following a more humorous slant. Or, at least, that was the idea. From there, however, I went my own way, and this is the result.**

**Also, a warning. This overall collection of stories is rated T, but that is the general rule, and there are occasional exceptions. Because of Gold's mentality, which will make itself apparent quite quickly, his chapters are rated M, with all the connotations that carries in my works. No explicit sex scenes, but plenty around that topic.**

* * *

The driving rain drummed incessantly over Gold's back and wings. He ignored it. After season-cycles of sleeping in, he was good at ignoring whatever tried to wake him. The world could wait for him to get up; he needed his sleep. Especially after such a terrible night. He had wanted to go court Pearl in secret, but the weather had dissuaded him at the last moment, and he needed plenty of rest to recover from that disappointment.

Of course, thinking of the disappointment led to other things, and daydreams he really shouldn't be having if he wanted to sleep in. With an annoyed groan, he opened his eyes and rolled off of the family rock, dropping to the ground with practiced ease. Season-cycles of sleeping late had led to season-cycles of his Dam trying to make him get up, and that had led to her pushing him off the rock in exasperation, which was annoyingly effective because he couldn't ignore it. So, he was good at that particular fall.

Not that any of it mattered. He spread his wings, yawning cavernously, and launched himself into the sky. Daydreaming was all well and good, but nothing compared to actually trying to get a female willing to make those dreams reality, and every day meant he was a little closer…

But frustratingly far. He growled to himself, winging out over the mountain and out to sea. Lily, Crystal, Honey, or Pearl? Of course, Pearl was a risky endeavor, as she was technically one of Claw's mates, but she was so obviously unhappy that Gold thought the danger of courting her was offset by the ease of success he expected to have.

Gold fired at the water and circled above it, hoping some fish had been in range of the concussive explosion. He could have tried to spot a likely group before firing, but that was too much effort, at least compared to just expending his shot limit randomly firing at the water. That never failed to bring up something.

As he fished in his own, lazy way, he idly imagined his prospects. Pearl, if she could be approached. Honey, but she was too prudish and dragging her paws on actually doing anything interesting. But then there was Crystal, who made vague promises, or Lily, who did exactly the same.

Gold didn't _want_ to wait until the cold-season to finally get close and personal with a female, but if he chose one now, he'd lose the other. If he could just hold out until then, he would be able to have some fun with both and decide which was better; he expected to have them all in the far future, but he wanted the best one of them to enjoy until then.

Gold shuddered mid-air, purring in anticipation, and tried to take his mind off of his prospects. Thinking too much about that would ruin his aerodynamic shape and slow him down.

O-O-O-O-O

"Gold!"

Gold knew that voice. He purred knowingly and turned in his flight to meet Crystal.

"We need to talk," Crystal said without preamble, before dropping down in front of him and leading the way to the ledges she knew he frequented.

He didn't complain; aside from the prospect of Crystal having something to tell him, she was giving him a nice view of her backside, and he would never pass up a chance to admire her well-shaped tail and hindquarters. She was fit and well-rounded, something she had over both Honey and Lily. The former was pleasantly plump, and the latter thin and lithe.

Of course, the view came to an end all too quickly as Crystal landed on the ledge outside the valley and immediately turned to face him. He allowed himself a quick fantasy about her just leaping onto him the moment he landed, and then forced himself to focus on what she was going to say. Daydreaming was only acceptable when it wouldn't hinder his chances at making said dreams a reality.

"So?" he purred enticingly, still hoping what she had to say would be good for him.

"Guess what?" Crystal replied in a low voice, moving close to him. Her tail swept across his side, and he shivered in anticipation. It was actually going to happen! There was nobody around, the ledges were mostly private, and-

Her tail, delicately tracing along his side, reached his head, only to pull back and then slap him, hard. He yelped in surprise and leaped back, pawing at his ringing head.

"You disgust me," Crystal said coldly. "You always have. Do not look at me, do not talk to me, do not even _think_ about me from this point onward. I would rather go to Claw than you. Am I making myself clear?"

Gold nodded, trying to reconcile this harsh treatment with the literal moon-cycles of coy words and unspoken promises he had to compare it to. It didn't make any sense!

"Really?" Crystal raised her tail threateningly. "I can beat it into you if I have to."

"No, you have done enough," he hastily replied, feeling just a little crushed. "But… Why pretend you liked me?" He wanted to know what had so quickly turned Crystal off and undone all the work he had put toward worming his way into her affections.

"I guess I just was not thinking straight," Crystal said scathingly. "Now that I look, you would never have been as good as Granite, or even close. At least with Claw there are absolutely no similarities." She leaped off the ledge and flew away, never looking back.

Gold sat on his hind legs and absently held a paw to the side of his head that Crystal had hit, trying to console himself. So, she didn't like him. Not every female did, that was fine. He still had two more, or three if he could get Pearl to so much as notice him.

But he had been looking forward to being able to caress her, to finding out what she was like when all inhibitions were put aside… It was not easy, letting go of that fantasy. Maybe, in the future, once she was tired of Claw-

No, that would not happen. She had been clear; that kind of disdain was not fleeting.

Gold lay down on the ledge, trying to consider his remaining options. Crystal, fit, well rounded Crystal, was no longer available.

Well, no, technically she still was. He could even claim her as his mate today, just to spite her, and she would be his. But he didn't want an unwilling partner; that was a good way to get the most important part of himself bitten off.

So Crystal was out. Honey or Lily?

A muted thump got Gold's attention. It was followed by a low purr, and then a wet but surprisingly warm body settling down next to him, rubbing up against him, though he could see only a distortion in the air. "What happened there?" Lily asked.

If there was anything capable of driving rejection out of his mind, it would be another female showing interest in him directly afterward. "Crystal seems to think Claw would be preferable to me."

"I think the one Crystal would _prefer_ is dead," Lily said calmly. "And I know she doesn't particularly like Claw. So, if she rejected you, she must _really_ not like you."

"That was the impression I got," Gold agreed, wondering as he spoke how to turn this to his advantage. Pity wasn't the way he _wanted_ to go in convincing Lily to mate with him, but if it worked…

"And I've seen Honey staring longingly at Claw before," Lily continued conversationally. "I think she is only trying for you to keep her options open for a while."

He held in a sigh; now that he thought about it, that did seem plausible. He didn't remember Honey ever really approaching any of the males of their season-cycle before the ceremony, and that pointed to her not being bothered by the alternative.

"It sounds like it's just you and me," Lily purred, draping her translucent tail over his. "Right?"

Normally, he would have responded with something meant to make her feel she had to escalate her affections, or he would go for one of the other females. But now, right after losing one of his better options, and while being caressed by a willing female…

"Mate with me," he offered, saying it flat out. Maybe he could turn this disappointment into a victory. Lily seemed willing enough.

"So eager," Lily hummed seductively, nuzzling the side of his face, the same side Crystal had hit. "Make it official, choose me, and I will."

"Or?" Gold asked, trying to hide his excitement.

"Or you can wait for no good reason," Lily offered. "Things will be the same tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that. Why are you wasting time, now that Crystal is not a choice? I _know_ I am more interesting than Honey."

She was, at that; Honey was simple. Lily was not much brighter, but she was eager, even more so now. She was more willing to please…

Gold gave in to temptation, practically trembling at the thought. "Yes, I will make you my mate officially," he promised, meaning it. He stood and tried to climb on top of her, but her intangible form made that difficult.

"What are you doing?" Lily hissed, moving away from him.

"I cannot see you, so help me find where you are," Gold said eagerly. He could rely on feeling instead of sight once he had an idea of how she was oriented.

" _After_ we declare it to the whole pack," Lily corrected with a laugh that sounded somewhat forced. "Come on, we can…" She paused. "Well, no, you should wait here and calm down. Meet me by the pond."

It took him a moment to understand what she meant by that, and by the time he got it, she was gone, her blurred form taking flight.

So close, yet so far… And then again, he happily realized, still closer than ever. He just had to calm down, go meet Lily, proclaim her as his choice to the valley, and then fly back here to return to what he had thought he would be doing right now.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was fully visibly by the pond, staring into its murky depths. Gold circled above for a few moments, admiring the female who was about to become his. Thin and almost lanky in a few places, she was a different kind of attractive to Crystal or Honey, but he was more than fine with that. Her purple glint and willing demeanor more than made up for her being flat and small in some areas he would rather see rounded.

"It took you a long time to get here," Lily said in way of greeting when he landed next to her.

"Your doing," he purred suggestively. "It was hard to get you off my mind." It was actually a good thing the cold rain showed no sign of letting up, he didn't want to get visibly excited in the middle of the valley, in plain sight. Male fledglings on the cusp of adulthood accidentally did that at times, but he was well past the age where it was politely ignored as uncontrollable.

"I suppose that is good," Lily sighed, throwing him for a loop. Shouldn't she _like_ that? "Let's get on with it."

Gold decided to ignore her reluctance for the moment; she was probably just nervous. He looked around, noting the half-dozen or so light wings braving the driving rain to get a drink. Was there anywhere more populated to make this announcement? Probably not right now, and he didn't want to wait.

This would have to do. The news would spread quickly enough anyway. "Dragons of the pack!" Gold roared loudly. "I have chosen my mate!"

That was enough to get the attention of everyone who could hear him. Light wings all around the pond looked over at him and Lily curiously.

"It is Lily!" Gold continued after a long pause. "She is my mate now!" He wasn't entirely sure what to say past 'I have chosen a mate'. His Sire's explanation of how it had all been done lingered more on how to handle a mate once one was acquired, not how to announce the acquisition. And he hadn't paid much attention anyway, as his Sire was not an authority on any subject involving keeping one's mate under control, being very obviously the subordinate in his own relationship.

"I am Gold's mate!" Lily roared after him, projecting her voice quite effectively. "I choose him!"

Gold tried to put a wing over Lily, only to find that she had already beaten him to it. He glanced back at her wing in mild annoyance, but quickly put it out of his mind. The important thing was that it was done.

"Let us go-" he began.

"No," Lily said quietly. "I want us to stay until Claw sees and acknowledges it."

"Why?" He hadn't thought Lily cared about either of her parents, spending almost no time around them. They had more interesting things to be doing than waiting!

"I want him to see us and agree that we are mated," Lily said vehemently. "Please, just wait with me."

Gold didn't know why Lily was so set on this, but he could recognize urgency when he heard it, and he was feeling generous, if also impatient. "Okay, we can stay."

"Good." Lily resettled her wing on his back, holding him close in a very possessive fashion, and they waited.

Luckily, it did not take long for the news to reach Claw, who appeared from the direction of the cavern not long after the announcement had been made, flying low over the pond to land opposite them. "What have I heard about you two?" he rumbled.

"We are mates, now," Gold said proudly. He _was_ proud of his choice; either Lily or Crystal was a good catch compared to many of the older females he always saw around, and Lily was Claw's daughter, meaning Gold himself now had a connection to the leadership of the pack. He still harbored distant dreams of becoming alpha and taking over Claw's circle of females for himself. That was the ultimate goal.

"Are you?" Claw eyed Lily curiously, and she stared back. "This is your choice?"

"Definitely," Lily said coldly.

Claw's eyes widened, and then narrowed, and he turned to Gold. "Keep a close eye on your new mate," he warned. "I will hold you responsible for her actions."

Gold shrugged his wings, not sure why Claw thought that an important warning to give, and bowed his head. "Of course, alpha," he said meekly.

"Good." Claw bounded off into the sky, presumably headed anywhere less wet and cold.

"It is done," Lily hummed to herself.

Gold didn't know why she now sounded _relieved_ , of all things, but he didn't care, either. "Now we can go back to the ledge," he purred eagerly, already imagining-

"Well," Lily said, pulling away from him, "yes, but…"

"But what?" Gold whined. "Come on, we are mates now."

"But… We should pick out a rock for ourselves first, surely," Lily blurted out. "So that we have somewhere to return to afterward. And don't you want to let your Sire and Dam know?"

"That can wait."

"The rock, or your parents?"

"My parents," he replied without thinking. He knew his Dam wouldn't be happy about finding out after most of the valley, but he didn't particularly care. She could wait.

"Okay. Let's go choose a rock, then," Lily declared. "Any preferences?"

Gold squirmed uncomfortably, frustrated but unable to think of an objection that wouldn't sound stupid and foolish. It was looking like they were going to go find a rock. He would just have to speed that process up as much as possible.

"Gold?" Lily asked, waving a paw up and down in front of his face.

Right, she wanted his opinion. Of course she did; he would be the one actually making all the decisions. That was how it worked. "Well…" he said slowly, trying to think about it. "We should go look at some. Far from my family's rock."

"And far from the cavern," Lily added. "Sounds like a start. So, near the dark side of the valley?"

"Not too close, but probably." He knew most of the unclaimed rocks were in that area, because nobody wanted to live too close to where they kept the bodies of the idiots who challenged Claw and died.

"Let's go, then," Lily purred.

Gold nodded absently and stepped back to give her room to take off. "You first," he hummed. If they were going to be flying, he wanted her in front. It would give him something to look forward to.

O-O-O-O-O

What felt like a small eternity later, Gold was still cold, still wet, and still eager beyond belief to get this over with and on to the main event he had been anticipating for moon-cycles.

"What do you think of this one?" Lily asked, landing on a small, oval-shaped rock. "It's not perfectly flat, so all the rain drains off. No puddles."

Gold sighed in boredom and landed beside her, eyeing the rock under them. This _was_ kind of important; he wanted a good place to sleep. But he would rather not be doing the choosing right now, they could have slept up on the ledge tonight. As it was, he feared it would be fully dark before they had actually settled on a rock.

Still, she wanted his opinion, and as the strong, decisive male, he should give a thorough one. "Good location, small but manageable, no sharp edges," he said neutrally. "Kind of far from the pond, but the pond is near the cavern and you wanted to be far from there… No close neighbors." That last one was a definite plus.

"I hadn't thought of that," Lily said, looking around at the empty rocks surrounding theirs.

"I like it," Gold purred. They were still in plain sight, and there was a rock not three leaps away that bore the signs of being occupied, but he could imagine clandestine activities hidden by wings, noises made too quietly to be heard from that distance… He ran his tail along Lily's side, unable to help himself.

Lily stepped over to the edge of the rock and looked down. "But there are puddles all around this one," she declared. "Jumping down after a storm will be miserable, and we'll always be tracking mud up here. I see why nobody has claimed this rock, now."

"That is not too big a deal," Gold murmured. "We can just always fly away from it…"

"True," Lily agreed. "But what if one of us cannot fly for some reason?"

"That is not likely." Gold liked this rock. It was well-positioned and big enough for the two of them. Though it was not big enough for three or more full-grown dragons. That, to him, was a positive factor. He wanted to hold off on eggs as long as possible, and had picked up a few tricks for doing so from spying on other dragons using the ledges. Given Lily had not once considered anything involving future children of theirs in examining these rocks, he assumed she felt the same.

"I guess this is a good one, though," Lily murmured unenthusiastically. "We'll claim it."

"Great!" Gold barked. "Now we can go do something more interesting!" He launched himself into the air without waiting for a response, far too impatient to linger any longer. _Finally!_

A few moments into his near-frantic flight, Gold slowed down just enough to let Lily catch up. He was impatient, but he wanted this to be perfect. Racing ahead of his new mate was not perfect; he wanted her flying beside him, or ideally in front of him, leading him on…

Looking back, he could see that she was flying slowly, so he slowed down even further, forcing himself to glide languidly until she caught up. He didn't complain about her speed; at this point, he was just glad she was heading the right direction. It was almost like she _wanted_ to stall for as long as possible...

He tried to put that idea out of his mind, but it was surprisingly tenacious, bothering him the whole way to the ledge. It _did_ kind of seem as if she was taking every chance to delay this, though at no point had she been obvious about it. Everything had been reasonable enough that he hadn't questioned any of it, but now, her slow flying was just too much for him to take without wondering.

Gold shook his head and flew a little faster, squinting through the rain as they neared the side of the mountain that held all of the good ledges. He was just being pessimistic; Crystal's rejection must have stung his confidence more than he realized. Lily had chosen him, and had worked very hard to make it clear she was more than into what was about to happen. This would be perfect.

But before it could begin, he had one thing to check. The moment his paws hit the familiar stone ledge he had picked out long ago as being the best, among other things being the only one that totally sheltered its occupants from the rain, he began looking around in all directions.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked, landing on the other end of the ledge and eyeing him suspiciously.

"Making sure nobody is watching," Gold replied absently, tilting his head to look directly up and around. He knew that other ledges might have good views of them from above, or to the side, angles where a head, possibly camouflaged, could peek down and watch, and he had no desire to be spied on.

"Who would want to?"

Gold shrugged his wings, not wanting to admit that-

" _Oh_ ," Lily growled, tossing her head in disgust. "Acting out of experience, are you?"

Gold flinched, momentarily surprised out of his careful examination of their surroundings. How had she guessed that so easily? "Maybe," he admitted, not seeing the point in hiding it if she already knew.

"...So?" Lily asked after a long moment of silence. "Is there anyone watching?"

"Nobody I can see." He could go fly around and check each and every ledge that might possibly be within view, but at this point his patience was pretty much gone, so he skipped that. "We are alone."

"Good, I suppose," Lily murmured. "Let's get this over with."

Gold looked over at her, surprised by her obvious reluctance. Something wasn't right. "You do not sound happy at all," he observed.

"No, I'm entirely happy," Lily replied, not sounding as if she meant it as sarcastically as the words implied. Her entire body roared 'resigned' at Gold, from her limp ears and frills to her downcast gaze. "Let's do it."

Gold scrunched his nose up in confusion and tried to figure out what was going on. "No," he said firmly, walking over to her staring into her eyes. "Why are you so unhappy?"

"Does it matter?" Lily asked. "I'm willing, and you're my mate." She crouched and awkwardly rolled onto her back, closing her eyes and letting her head drop back with a sigh. The invitation was obvious…

And Gold found himself anything but interested at the moment, his own eagerness quenched as thoroughly as if exposed directly to the rain. All of his fantasies revolved around a happy, eager partner, not… whatever this was. This wasn't attractive at all, even though it really should be.

So, instead of doing anything, he sat down where he stood and looked away, choosing to look out at the forest instead of the mate who was making him feel so terrible about everything. What had he done wrong? Crystal hated him, and now Lily was acting like she didn't want him, and this was supposed to be the perfect day…

"Why aren't you doing anything?" Lily asked from behind him. She sounded genuinely confused.

Gold shrugged his wings helplessly. He didn't know what he had done wrong, but this wasn't at all what he had wanted. How could he put into words the disappointment dragging his mood down into the mud?

"What is it?" Lily continued. "We are mates, do not try to undo that!" she said urgently, sounding scared of the very idea.

"It is not that…" Gold said slowly. That certainly wasn't what was bothering him; he didn't consider it all that important. He could still have fun with other females on the sly, it was just that Lily was officially his, the female who was _supposed_ to want to be with him. Taking her as a mate was supposed to mean he had won her affection. He certainly wouldn't have done so before then; he wanted…

"I wanted a willing mate," he admitted aloud. "Not somebody who seems like she is just going to lie there and ignore me." There was absolutely nothing good to be said about that; he knew just how boring and dull mated pairs were when one of the two of them wasn't participating.

He understood his disappointment, but not why Lily was acting so depressing. "I thought you wanted this," he continued quietly, pawing at the ground. "Why do you not?"

There was a rustle of movement from behind him; probably Lily getting up. Then she spoke, sounding closer than before. "This doesn't appeal to you?"

"It is only fun if both of us are enjoying it," Gold said simply. That was an obvious truth, and why he was so disappointed.

"I think I'm being unfair," Lily murmured, now right behind him. "This is a big day for you."

"It was supposed to be," Gold huffed. "Where did I go wrong?"

"Maybe you didn't." A paw poked at his flank, and smooth, wet scales ran across his side. "I need to make the best of this. And I guess I could have some fun with it…"

Gold shivered at the caressing going on near his hindquarters; he didn't want to turn and look, for fear he had gone crazy and was imagining it out of desperation. Just moments ago, Lily had seemed interested in anything but him.

"Yes, I'm being unfair," Lily continued in a low voice. "I didn't think you'd care how it happened." She rubbed up against his side, working her way forward, and was soon rubbing her face against his. "I don't know how any of this works," she purred sultrily. "But you do?"

"Yes…" Gold admitted, his eagerness returning as Lily showed all the signs of having gotten over whatever odd mood had struck her. "But I think you will figure it out quickly enough." He tried to push the lingering discomfort aside and focus on the moment, which wasn't hard with her nipping at his ears now, pulling his head down against her chest as she sprawled out beside him.

"Teach me, then," she purred airily.

All rational thought left Gold's head as she continued to lick, nip, and caress him, and he couldn't have been happier about that. After so long waiting for it, he wasn't going to waste a moment thinking. He responded in kind and began to teach her exactly what he had learned in his spying.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold woke as he normally did; slowly and with great reluctance. He felt warmer than normal, and confined, somehow. He began, out of pure habit, to daydream about a willing female-

Then Lily shifted, her front paws kneading his chest, and he realized that he no longer needed to imagine. His eyes snapped open and immediately focused on the female straddling his chest, lying on top of him in a _very_ appealing way that would never fly down in the valley.

"This is nice," Lily purred, seeing him awake. "You're more comfortable than stone."

Gold saw an oddly calculating look in her beautiful grey gaze, but ignored it with ease. There were more pressing matters clamoring for his attention, and the most important one was lying all over him. "How long have you been up?" he asked leisurely, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes.

"Long enough to get impatient," Lily replied, collapsing on his chest, letting her paws splay out to either side. "You sleep late."

"My mistake," Gold said happily. "Want to pick up where we left off?"

"Definitely," Lily agreed, the oddly calculating look back again. It disappeared as he began to shift under her, and she moved to let him do as he pleased. If this was what mornings were going to be like from now on, he was never sleeping in again.

O-O-O-O-O

Later, after they had exhausted each other and then helped clean each other up, Lily stretched languidly and walked out to the edge of the ledge. "Freezing cold, wet, and all around unappealing," she commented, looking out at the rain. "Seems like there's an advantage to sleeping here. I'm surprised nobody else does it."

Gold rumbled noncommittally, having no opinion on the subject. The ledges were for mating, and the rocks for everyday life, generally speaking, though he planned to bring a little of the former to the latter if it could be done clandestinely enough.

"I think we should go tell your parents we're mates," she continued, seemingly unbothered by the lack of response.

"If we do not, my Dam will be unhappy," Gold admitted, leaving out that his Dam might very well come looking for them if they didn't show up soon. She was pushy, sometimes, and this seemed to him like it might be such a time.

"All the more reason," Lily agreed. "Then, I want to introduce you to Pina, my cavern-Dam."

"Just the one?" As far as Gold knew, Lily had two or three of those. He didn't envy her that; _one_ clingy Dam was bad enough.

"Only Pina will care," Lily grumbled, still looking out at the bad weather. "I want to see Pearl, too, but bringing you along would seem like I was taunting her."

"I can be unobtrusive," Gold offered. He had almost forgotten about Pearl; she was still an attractive chase to be had.

Lily looked back at him suspiciously. "Why would you want to be there?"

"Just because. A good male should know his mate's friends." That would be enough to throw her off the scent-

Lily glared at him, her eyes unfriendly slits. "Do not think I am stupid," she hissed. "I have not forgotten your offer back when you thought she was an option."

"So?" Gold asked languidly. "You got the dragon's share of me, but there is plenty left to go around."

Lily stalked over to him, her ears flat against her neck in agitation. She seemed quite put out by the idea, but Gold wasn't worried. She would get used to it soon enough-

"Tell me," she hummed maliciously, "what draws you to other females now?"

"What?" He hadn't been expecting her to question his motives. "They are females. What more motivation do I need?"

"What do you expect to get from them that I cannot provide?" Lily persisted. She was standing right across from him now.

"From them?" Gold had the strange feeling that he was being manipulated, but he couldn't yet see the point, and Lily wasn't smart enough to outwit him. "Mating."

"So the same thing I give you freely?" Lily asked, rubbing her face against the underside of his neck in a very distracting manner. "The thing I can give _better_ than them?"

"I…" Gold had never had his plans for the future questioned so effectively. He didn't really have an answer, so he improvised one. "If I am with you too often, you will definitely get an egg. If I spread it around, it is less likely."

"Wrong," Lily purred seductively, looking up at him. The manipulative look in her eyes was back full force, her stare fierce and steady as rock, and Gold was beginning to suspect that he might have somewhat underestimated her intelligence. "Want to know why?"

"Sure," Gold rumbled, genuinely curious as to what she was going to say. He was sure he was right.

"I," Lily hummed deviously, "know how to keep myself from having eggs for as long as I want. No other female in this pack can do that."

"Really?" If she was right… Gold trembled in anticipation. He had always assumed care would need to be taken, certain strategies employed and cycles observed, to avoid that. If Lily could just be sure she would have no eggs without any further effort…

"I can still go after other females," he objected weakly. He liked the idea of having many attending to his needs, like Claw, and he had fantasized about it for so long…

"You could, but here is what I am thinking," Lily growled, pulling away from him. "I am here, right now, and I'm safe." She spread her wings enticingly, flaunting herself. "Stop pursuing other females, and you get me as often as you want. No consequences, no risk. The way it should be, but better, because we do not have to be careful."

"Or…" Gold rumbled uneasily. He sensed that he had just been trapped or tricked in some way, but he couldn't for the life of him see how. She had no power over-

"If you go after other females," Lily continued in a neutral voice, folding her wings in, "you do not get me, ever, and I will do my best to ensure you do not ever get to enjoy those females. And if you _do_ end up mating with one of them, well... you might find there are consequences."

Consequences… Gold shied away from her. "Like what?"

"You don't know how I keep myself from having eggs," Lily purred deviously. "You don't know what _else_ I can do in that area, and you don't know if I can do it to other dragons. Try enjoying mating with any other female while worrying that she might get with an egg no matter what you do."

Could she really do that? Gold knew that he had absolutely no way of proving that she couldn't, and he _wanted_ to believe that she could regulate herself, meaning he couldn't throw it all out as lies…

"So, your choice," Lily concluded smugly. Then her expression slipped, and he caught a glimpse of something sad and vulnerable behind it. "I hope you choose me," she murmured quietly. "I wish I did not have to put it this way at all."

So… Gold looked down at the ground. On the one paw, his plans for the future, courting multiple females, eventually catching several, enjoying them all, and in the far future, taking over once Claw died. But now, that dream was tinged with worry, because Lily might be able to make it all go horribly wrong.

On the other paw, the apparently devious female he was already mated to, the one he _knew_ was an amazing experience, and likely to only get better, the one who was apparently willing to do whatever he wanted, safe in the knowledge that they _could_ do whatever they wanted, as much as they wanted. The one with the sad, vulnerable eyes who he wanted to think highly of him.

Gold shook his head in resignation. He didn't think he would be able to stand her disappointment, judging by how she had so easily brought his mood down last night, and she didn't seem like the kind of dragon to make empty threats. And it seemed that her trust could be broken easily, but rebuilt with difficulty if at all, so the choice was obvious.

"I choose you, of course," he said, looking up at her. "You did not _really_ give me a choice at all."

"You made the choice when you took me as your mate," Lily said firmly. "I see that as a commitment, and I won't let it be anything less for you than me. _I_ have absolutely no desire to go courting other males. You are more than enough."

Gold purred smugly at that admission; he liked that. For now, he could keep his eyes and paws off other females, if it kept her happy.

If it kept her happy… Something occurred to him. "How did it end up like this?"

"Like what, exactly?" Lily asked.

Gold waved his paw helplessly, gesturing to her. He hadn't expected… any of this, really. And he certainly had intended to be the one in charge between them. "I did not plan on this."

"No, you did not," Lily laughed, walking closer. "But it's going perfectly according to _my_ plan."

"What is that?" Gold asked nervously.

"Fixing you up," Lily murmured, walking around him in a slow circle, brushing against him with every step. "Attracting you, claiming you, and making sure you want what I have to offer, before using that as leverage to improve you."

Gold's eyes widened as that sunk in. "Improve?" he warbled weakly.

"Oh, yes," Lily hummed, coming back around to the front of him. "We are just getting started."

"What if I do not want to be improved?" Gold asked.

"You want _me_ ," Lily replied confidently. "And I've discovered that rewarding good behavior on your part is going to be fun for me, too."

Gold shivered convulsively at the promise in her voice and suddenly found himself not all that bothered by the rest of what she was saying. He was not his Sire, and thus could always say no if she wanted something he didn't like.

_**Author's Note:** _ **Just in case anyone is wondering, this** _**is** _ **a small story in and of itself, focusing on character development alongside the humor aspect, and many of the things people might find troubling in how the characters act here are intentional, providing room to grow for both characters. We've got plenty to go in this mini-series. I think I'll post in tandem with UotD for the duration of this, meaning once a week on Wednesdays.**


	21. Gold - Quick-Witted (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 13.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is the second chapter of the 'Gold is Lily's mate' AU begun last chapter. Again, a reminder that while this collection of one-shots as a whole is rated T, this individual arc is rated M because of Gold.**

* * *

"You're procrastinating," Lily drawled.

"You are distracting, and _far_ more interesting than my parents," Gold purred, running his muzzle down her back. He had no desire to hurry, not when anything more interesting might happen. Sure, they had already done 'interesting' things once that very morning, but that made the prospect of doing so again even more enticing, not less.

"Come on," Lily warbled, pushing his muzzle away with the edge of her wing. "We already agreed that we're going to go be polite. Your parents should hear it from you, not some random gossiping light wing."

"Nobody is going around gossiping in this weather," Gold quickly retorted, setting his paws just behind where her wings could reach, putting just enough weight on her hindquarters to force her to sit down. "We can stay here until it stops raining. That is a good excuse."

Lily looked back at him, her expression somewhere between annoyed and amused. "Do you plan on holding me here?"

Gold looked down at his paws, which were firmly pressing her to the stone, and then back over at her. "Looks like it," he said smugly. She was thin and he was strong; she had no choice but to give in if he put his paw down – literally. "My parents can wait."

"How confident are you of that?" Lily asked, trying to twist around and free herself. She was, of course, not at all successful.

"Confident enough to do this." He lunged forward and sprawled across her hindquarters, keeping her down with his stomach instead of his paws.

"Overconfident," Lily huffed, twisting her neck to look back at him. "Get off."

"No. I am on top in this relationship!" he crowed. After being manipulated into promising not to go after other females, he was enjoying turning the tide on her. This was how it should be; he was in charge when it came to-

There was a subtle shift under his stomach, but it wasn't nearly enough warning to prepare him for what came next. Lily, having repositioned herself, heaved forward, shoving her bony spine upward. She didn't actually throw him, but her spine drove into his soft stomach, totally forcing the air out of him, and she had no trouble sliding out from under him after that.

Gold had bigger worries than keeping her pinned, anyway. He collapsed to the ground, wheezing breathlessly, and barely noticed pressure on his sides and front while his lungs laboriously struggled to pull in that which had been displaced. It would be the height of embarrassment to die because he had annoyed his mate, but he didn't think he could help that.

Of course, he wasn't really dying. It just felt that way for a little while. And when the pain cleared, humiliation replaced it.

"What were you saying?" Lily asked sweetly, her grey eyes boring into his from her place straddling him, her left paw lightly pressing on his throat, the other three paws and tail pinning his limbs. "Something about how being on top and being in charge are related?"

Gold tried to wrap his tail around hers to pull her to the side, but her tail was elusive, pushing his down without offering anywhere to grip.

"I'm on top if that is what it takes to get you to respect me," she continued lightly. "And if you want to be on top of me, or on me at all, you need to go be polite to your relatives, and then mine."

"If you-"

"And we will do something fun _after_ all of that, at nightfall so that you do not act impatient and try to hurry things along," Lily continued, totally overriding his attempt at negotiating. "But only if you behave."

Gold decided that the best way to salvage some dignity from the situation was to nod and savor the feeling of her body on his, regardless of the context.

It took Lily a moment to realize what he was doing. When she did notice, she shook her head, growling lightly, and hopped off of him. "That's not going to work if I have to pin you again," she growled.

Gold said nothing in return, rolling to his paws and shaking himself. Their little power struggle wasn't over yet, and she had just given him a good way to make sure she regretted trying to make him cooperate.

Maybe regret was the wrong way to put it, actually. He looked over at Lily as they walked to the falling curtain of cold rain that marked the end of the ledge. He didn't want to make her regret anything, really. That sounded too harsh. He wanted to convince her to just let him take charge.

"The sooner we go, the sooner we can be out of the rain again," Lily declared, leaping out into the cold day.

"And the sooner I can warm you up," Gold called out suggestively, flying close behind her. Usually he was more subtle with his innuendo, but he wanted to test something. "Warm from the inside out."

Lily faltered midair and glared back at him, her eyes wide and uncertain, before looking forward once more and flapping just a little harder.

Gold purred smugly as they flew up over the mountains. Yes, he had been correct. This would work. By the end of today, Lily would know better than to try and turn things around on him. She might be smarter than he had thought, but he was still going to be the one in control.

O-O-O-O-O

"Gold!" His Dam roared out the moment she caught sight of him, though he had taken the lead and come around from behind precisely in order to postpone that moment as long as possible, and thus was almost close enough to land before she noticed. "Get down here!"

"Already doing that," Gold quipped, landing heavily and splattering pooled rain everywhere. He was reminded of the rock he and Lily had picked out and how it would not allow water to pool like this, and could not hold back a smug purr. His impatience seemed… totally reasonable, actually, even in retrospect. But he was still glad she had insisted they take the time to choose then.

"And _you_!" his Dam hissed just as Lily landed beside him. "You trough! My son is better than-"

"Dam!" Gold roared, feeling far more defensive than he had anticipated. "Do not call her that!" Aside from the insult itself, he really didn't like hearing his Dam accuse Lily of being easily convinced to mate with any male who asked; she _certainly_ was not that, given how long she had led him on without actually giving anything more interesting than a few teasing touches. He had _wished_ she or Crystal or Honey was that easily persuaded.

"She is one," his Dam hissed angrily. "Disappearing with you overnight? That is shameful and dishonorable. And I am mad at you too, son, so do not think you are blameless here."

Gold cast a quick glance back at Lily, but she just tossed her head in his Dam's direction, for some reason declining to defend herself. Well, if she wanted him to defend her, he had no problem being her big, strong mate and doing so.

"We are mates," he said loudly. None of their neighbors _appeared_ to be listening, huddled on their own rocks, but he was sure all who were listening could hear him. "And have been since yesterday. So no, she is not what you are calling her."

There was something viscerally satisfying about the way his Dam's tirade abruptly died away as that information sunk in, and Gold was glad Lily hadn't burst her bubble immediately. It was much more fun this way, even if his Sire was nowhere to be seen and thus not around to add to the entertainment of the moment.

"You… Oh." His Dam pawed at a puddle directly beneath her head, looking down for a long moment. "I see."

"I did say we should come tell you immediately afterward," Lily volunteered. "So, I cannot blame you for leaping to conclusions when we could have prevented it but chose not to."

"But I still think you should apologize," Gold added hopefully, still savoring the moment. His Dam was overbearing at the best of times; it was rare to see her so off-balance.

"I do apologize," his Dam said emphatically, looking up and approaching Lily. "Welcome to the family, and congratulations."

"Thank you," Lily said primly, her head held high. "Apology accepted."

"Please, come over to the high part of the rock," his Dam offered, leading Lily to the one slanted part of the family rock, the one she usually occupied. "I wish the weather was not so horrible."

"We all do," Gold said quickly, interjecting himself back into the conversation before his Dam could totally exclude him. She hadn't even begun to yet, but he knew how she worked and had absolutely no intention of being sent off to 'do something useful' like his Sire always was whenever his Dam wanted to talk to someone interesting. Lily was his mate, and he wasn't letting that happen.

Actually, on that thought, "What is Sire doing out in it, anyway?" he asked, awkwardly bringing the conversation around to that very topic.

"Out fishing," his Dam blithely replied, waving a wing dismissively at him. "So, Lily, can I expect a young one from you two soon? I hope so."

Gold saw a chance to further both his immediate and long-term goals, and spoke accordingly. "It will not be from lack of trying if last night is anything to go by."

Lily's ears swept to the back of her neck, and she ducked her head in embarrassment. "Gold, please," she hissed.

He merely grinned in response to that; if it was _already_ making her plead with him, then a whole day of similar comments should be enough to get her to fold.

"So, you do want eggs?" his Dam pressed, ignoring the byplay either out of politeness or determination to get a solid answer. Gold suspected the latter.

"Perhaps not for a while," Lily replied bashfully, still looking anywhere but his Dam's face. "And we do not know if I _can_ have eggs. Some females cannot."

"We will be sure to _thoroughly_ investigate whether that is true in this case." Another little suggestive comment, and another round of cringing from Lily, though she cast him a subtle glare the moment his Dam looked away. He flicked his ears and quite inappropriately brought one of his hind paws up to drive home just how _not_ bothered he was by innuendo in front of his Dam.

"Put that down before you scare somebody," his Sire called out, startling him and making Lily duck her head yet again in shame. Gold did his best to restrain his first impulse, which was identical to hers in this case, and turned it into a respectful nod.

"Put what- Oh, the fish," his Dam exclaimed, totally waylaid by the sopping wet food his Sire tossed down. "Dear, take two for yourself and Gold and go flying with your son, will you? He has just taken a mate, and I want to talk to her."

Gold sighed in annoyance, all too aware that he and his Sire were being put out of the way, but didn't protest beyond that. There was only so much he could do, and he didn't want to try any more suggestive comments or actions after his Sire had caught him at one. There was nothing really to be lost by doing as told.

Of course, his Sire didn't even have to think about it; he had long since surrendered to doing as told in every instance. He was done eating and up in the air so fast Gold had to gulp his fish down and scramble to catch up.

"If what I saw is anything to go by, having a mate will not tame you," his Sire began without preamble once he caught up. They flew side by side in the pelting rain, heading up. It would be far more pleasant above the clouds.

"I am taming her," Gold asserted confidently, blithely ignoring Lily's demonstration as to the contrary earlier that morning. He had the upper paw _now_ , and that was all that mattered. "So, no."

"Good luck. Females do not take kindly to being controlled," his Sire advised as they powered up through the dense clouds making the world below so miserable.

"How would you know?" Gold muttered to himself. His Sire hadn't taken charge for a moment for as long as he could remember.

Then they broke through the top of the clouds, and Gold sighed in relief. The sun felt amazing on his scales, and the lack of rain even more so. It was windy but pleasant above the clouds.

"Is there any advice you would want from me?" his Sire asked eagerly. "I have flown these winds for season-cycles. I know how it works."

"Nothing I can think of." Any advice from his Sire would just go toward making his relationship as one-sided and boring as the one his parents shared. Even if his Sire gave advice, he wouldn't listen.

"Not even practical things?"

"Like what?" What was there to be practical about in being mated? What did his Sire even mean by that?

"Such as how to avoid having an egg until after you have both had your fill of lacking responsibility. You should not rush into anything immediately. You will not get your independence back for a long while once the process is started."

"I already knew that much." He didn't like being proven wrong, but it seemed to be happening more and more often lately. Here was some advice he would listen to, even if he wouldn't need it with Lily. If there was some easy, surefire way to negate her threat in regard to other females, he would at least be more free to choose to break his word later. "But yes, tell me."

"First, you should pay attention to her moods. If she is irritable or overly clingy, try to get out of mating that night."

"Sure," Gold drawled in a flat voice. He was entirely sure that was worthless in terms of actual effectiveness. How in the world could her mood matter? And he wouldn't want to mate with an angry or clingy female anyway.

"Then go sparingly," his Sire added. "No need to do things every single night. Make it something for a special occasion."

Again, that was worthless. Gold was beginning to think his Sire didn't actually have any advice that didn't boil down to 'do not mate with her very often'.

"And when you do mate," and here his Sire spoke quickly and didn't look him in the eye, "be mindful and end it outside."

It took Gold a moment to puzzle through exactly what that meant, but when he did figure it out he was once again disappointed. That was nothing he had not seen other pairs doing down on the ledges, and he knew that some of those pairs had wound up with eggs later anyway. Not only was it advice sure to take some of the fun out of mating, it also wasn't even effective when done.

"I understand," he replied. "There is nothing else?"

"If there was, we would not have had you so soon," was the honest reply. "We were planning to wait a few more season-cycles."

He had figured as much, given the lack of younger siblings following him. "I suppose you will enjoy having your independence back now."

"We certainly will not mind it," his Sire agreed. "Now, we should just fly for a while, to give my mate and yours of time to get to know each other."

And so that his Dam would not scold them and send them out again. Gold didn't argue, but his resolution to _not_ let this happen to him only got stronger.

O-O-O-O-O

When Gold returned to his parents' rock, he could tell that his Dam had taken the conversation in a similar direction to the one he had taken part in with his Sire; Lily seemed to be in a constant state of mild distress, her tail and paws fidgeting aimlessly as she listened to his nattering Dam.

"I think we have some other relatives to visit," Gold volunteered cheerfully, landing beside his mate and wrapping his tail around hers. He was all too happy to swoop in and save her from continued awkwardness. "See you some other time, Dam."

"Yes, we do," Lily agreed, quickly leaping off of the rock. "Let's go."

"Did you embarrass our son's new mate?" Gold heard his Sire asking from behind him as he spread his wings and took off once again.

"I do not know what would embarrass her," his Dam replied blithely. "Advice from one female to another should not be embarrassing, and it is not as if she does not know what I speak of."

And then Gold was too far away to hear them, soaring through the rain with his mate.

"That was rude," Lily remarked, sounding far too composed. Where had her unease gone?

"I saw no reason to linger. And you certainly did not complain in the moment."

"I don't want to be on bad terms with your Sire or Dam, but I don't want to spend much time around them either," Lily admitted. "Your Dam is nice enough, but still."

"Agreed. I do not plan to see them aside from when I cannot fly away fast enough," he said firmly. "Once a season, maybe. They will be happy to have me out on my own and not their responsibility anymore."

"And you're happy to be away from them?"

"I would rather live away from prying eyes and ears," Gold purred, gliding up under Lily and tossing his wings up to caress her sides in a risky move that might have gone wrong if he was a weaker flyer.

Lily shuddered and lurched in the air, then dipped to the side to fly alongside him instead of over him. "That is another thing. Stop it."

"Stop what?" Gold purred suggestively. "Touching my mate? I thought you wanted my attention solely on you."

"Remember, I'm not stupid," Lily snarled. "The looks, the innuendo, the gestures, it's all intentional. There's no way you would come up with so much in so short a time if it was not. So, stop it unless you want to sleep alone in the rain tonight."

"That was not our deal," Gold retorted, hiding the twinge of desperate unhappiness that threat brought to his heart. He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much anyway. "I am being polite and going along to greet everyone who needs greeting. You do not get to change the terms if you want me to believe you will keep to future agreements. And if you will not, why should I keep to my side of things?"

"Why do you even _want_ to make me uncomfortable?" Lily asked, clearly approaching it from a different angle now that he had countered her initial argument.

This time around, he had an answer to the sort of question that had so disoriented him last time. "Because I like doing it and your reaction is fun."

Lily favored him with a long, even stare as they glided toward the far side of the valley, now passing over the pond. "You like embarrassing me?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose you won't mind if I do the same," she snarled, diving to land on the shore of the pond.

"I have no shame," Gold asserted confidently. He wouldn't mind if Lily started making coarse suggestions and jokes at him; the only problem he anticipated was restraining himself from acting if she was suggestive enough.

"We shall see," Lily growled threateningly.

"Try." Gold led the way into the cavern. Sure, he didn't know what Lily's Dam looked like or which side-cavern was hers, but he could just improvise. He wasn't going to let Lily lead-

"This way," Lily rumbled, rubbing her side against him as she shoved past him. She was into the narrow corridor before Gold could react, and by then there was no counter except to act as if he had intended from the beginning to let her go first.

"Pina?" Lily hissed, poking her head into one of the small entrances to one of the many side passages that lined the corridor. Gold examined the rock all around them as he waited, idly resting his front paw on top of Lily's slowly swishing tail, following it as it moved aimlessly. She didn't seem to mind it, which made him purr happily. If nothing else, just having a mate around to touch and play with made waiting for things far less annoying.

"Lily?" An older female's voice hissed out in reply after a long wait. "Come in. Nobody else is here right now."

"Good," Lily said enthusiastically. Gold followed her tail into the side-cavern and proceeded to sit on the end, acting as if he was doing nothing unusual. It wouldn't be obvious unless she jerked it out from under him, meaning it would be her fault if she brought it to her Dam's attention.

"This is Gold, I take it?" Pina asked, her voice soft but insistent. "I heard about your taking him as a mate. How are you?"

"Embarrassed," Lily replied bluntly. "I had hoped that rumor would not have reached you yet. Sorry for not telling you sooner."

"Claw told me himself last night," Pina replied with a shrug. "I do not mind. You had more interesting things to think of and do yesterday. I know the feeling."

Gold looked Pina over appraisingly as she turned to face him. She was older, but that probably meant more experienced, and what was more, he heard only a distant fondness in her voice when she spoke of Claw. Had he not made that promise to Lily, he might seriously consider trying for her someday, once he got bored of easier catches like Pearl had promised to be. He still might if he ever got tired of Lily.

The twitching of Lily's tail beneath him reminded him that he would probably need to greet her. "It is good to meet someone Lily thinks well of," he said diplomatically, not willing to put his paw in his mouth with Lily's Dam. The last thing he needed was a nagging older female prying into their affairs, and even if Pina was not that sort, he would gain nothing by disrespecting her.

"She had a hard time convincing you to think well of her," Pina said neutrally, her tone giving no clues as to where she was going with that statement. She sat on her hind legs, apparently relaxed, but her alert ears and frills defied that appearance.

"I think very well of her as of last night," Gold said smugly, slipping in yet another innuendo almost by reflex. Not his most inspired or all that creative, but just vague enough that even a suspicious light wing would not be able to call him out on it. He had to be more careful around a light wing he didn't know; she might not be as oblivious as his Dam.

"I plan on smoothing the rough edges off of him," Lily said loudly, casting Gold a quick glare. "Try and ignore it for now."

Pina barked a loud laugh, startling Gold. "Do you?"

"Of the two of us, I'm the one on top," Lily said significantly. "It won't be hard."

Gold wasn't entirely sure he had heard what he thought he had. Surely she had just used an unfortunate turn of phrase. "I am right here, you know."

"Yes, you are," Lily agreed.

"So," Pina said, clearly trying to take the conversation to safer skies, "have you two picked out a rock yet?"

"Oh, yes, it's great," Lily said enthusiastically. "Small, but that's good for us. When it gets cold I'll be sleeping on top of him anyway."

Again, Gold couldn't be sure she had done it intentionally, but he was suspicious now, and more than a little bothered by what could very well be another reference to that humiliating moment this morning. But how could he object? What Lily had just said made total sense to the point where he really wasn't sure if she had meant anything by it. Calling her out would just end with Pina knowing what had happened, which was far worse than a few possible references.

"And it is slanted to redirect rain," Gold said lamely, trying to at least participate in the conversation.

"That _is_ a good thing," Pina hummed. "I do not have that problem here, but a few of my friends constantly complain about rain puddling around them in the night. On days like today, I think most of them will envy your choice of rocks."

"And most of them will envy your choice of mate," Gold hummed to Lily, not meaning for Pina to hear him.

"More than you would think, as long as you let him keep his confidence," Pina agreed, addressing Lily. "Do not even try to rid him of that. It might make him boring."

"Why do you keep talking like I am not here?" Gold asked irritably. "And she is not going to 'let me' keep anything, because she is not going to change anything about me!"

"Oh, sorry," Pina warbled, looking Gold in the eye. "I really am not used to the mates of my friends actually wanting to talk. I should not be making that mistake with you."

"No, you should not," Gold agreed. He wasn't going to be like his Sire!

"Out of curiosity, what are the most common complaints you hear about your friends' mates?" Lily asked. "I didn't even know you had many friends who were not also Claw's mates."

"You forced me to get some," Pina said fondly. "The first time I spent a good part of the day wandering the valley looking for you, maybe I could have ignored everyone, but you were an amazing hider, and I would have been bored out of my mind without talking to whoever wanted to walk with me."

"How long were you looking for her?" Gold asked, confused. "Surely there are only so many places to hide in the valley."

"I thought so, but she got so good I only ever found her when she got bored of hiding," Pina continued nostalgically. "I ended up telling her that we needed a new game, only to find out she just wanted to be outside!"

Gold rumbled with laughter for Pina's benefit, not really seeing the humor in that. He supposed it was either a 'had to be there' kind of thing, or just a joke he didn't get.

"I think we got off track," Lily politely suggested. "Complaints?"

"Oh, yes," Pina hummed. "Let me think… Well, laziness is a big one. Of course, most of them could do with being more active themselves, too."

"I'll have to get on top of that," Lily casually remarked, not even looking at Gold as she spoke. "I know I'm not as active as I should be."

Gold couldn't help it; he twitched at the word 'top'. At this point, he wasn't even sure whether it was abnormal for Lily to use it so often; maybe he was just noticing it because he had been taunting her in the same way. But it was effective, intentional or not. He didn't like remembering that moment, and she kept bringing it up!

"Other than that, I think the big complaints are not things that will bother you," Pina continued, unaware of Gold's discomfort. "Males being too independent, males not being independent _enough_ , spending too much time fishing and flying for fun, avoiding responsibility… I cannot see you letting any of that happen."

"I am not lazy, or any of that anyway," Gold supplied indignantly. "She does not need to do anything. I am her mate, not her unruly fledgling."

"Oh, you could help her improve too," Pina said consolingly. "Teach her to have more fun, maybe help her make some more friends. And, of course, there is the one thing all mates do together. Should I expect to be called over to watch an egg for you two anytime soon?"

"I think we're going to avoid that for a while," Lily answered. "It's not my top priority, for sure."

Gold flinched again, even though she had used the word in the most innocent way possible. He wondered whether this conversation would ever end; a part of him wanted to run out of the side-chamber howling. He dreaded the next incidental use of the word.

"I suppose there is something to be said for not having one," Pina said quietly. "At least you are choosing to live that way, and can stop choosing so at any time."

Lily flicked her tail impatiently under Gold and leaned forward, pressing her nose against Pina. "Sorry, I didn't mean to put it that way." Her tail flicked again, more insistently, and he realized she was telling him to let her go so that she could move, so he shifted and released her. It would not do to be caught holding her down.

The moment her tail was free, Lily moved forward again and embraced Pina. "Thanks for being here for me," she murmured, so quiet that Gold barely caught the words. "I don't want to take you for granted."

"You are not," Pina replied just as quietly. "And you _should_ be able to rely on at least one of us."

"I won't forget you just because I don't share a cave with you now," Lily promised, reluctantly pulling back. "Just ask if you want to come over and spend time with us on our rock, or go flying, or anything. If you don't, I'll have to come here."

"We would not want that," Pina rumbled lightly. "Gold, it was nice meeting you. Treat her well, and make sure she treats you fairly too. I will see you around."

"And you," Gold replied, nodding and making his escape as fast as would not seem strange. He didn't really care for the mushy stuff between his mate and her cavern-Dam; it didn't involve him, even if Pina _did_ seem less overbearing and thus far more tolerable than his own Dam. At least they were done now.

Or were they? "We do not have to go talk to your other cavern-Dams now, do we?"

"I think I already said just Pina," Lily replied lightly. "Cressa and Grass aren't exactly at the top of the pack in being good Dams."

Gold twitched compulsively and gave in. "Stop saying that."

Lily, far from being confused or even acting oblivious, purred smugly at him. "Oh, is it bothering you? I wondered if you would even notice. I worried I was being too subtle."

"Two can play at this game," Gold threatened. He was _not_ going to be outdone at this, of all things. Innuendo and sneaky suggestions that nobody else would notice were _his_ tools for convincing her to let him be in charge, not hers!

"Two are, but I think I'm winning," Lily said impassively. "I don't know what you thought you were going to get from annoying me, but I know _I_ won't stop until you promise to reign it in."

"Not stop entirely?" Gold asked, too surprised to object to the larger statement.

Lily dropped her head and shrugged her wing shoulders. "What, am I supposed to pretend I don't like it a little?" she asked. "It's just that you're using it to bother me, not to…"

"Seduce you." Like he had done before they were mates. "You liked that?"

"No, but I was not your mate then," Lily replied, looking up and fixing him with an intense stare, one that seemed halfway between annoyed and longing. "It would be okay now, but now you're going crazy with it and using it to get me back for this morning."

"You keep talking about changing and fixing me," Gold growled. "I am not letting you take charge like that. _I_ am the one who is supposed to be in control here."

"Who told you that?" Lily asked dismissively. "And besides, I want to _improve_ you. Such as, for instance, getting you to stop embarrassing me as a form of retribution. I will consider the end of that a huge improvement."

"What if I do not want to be improved?" Gold shot back. "What if I like what I am doing now?"

"Then you're probably going to develop a nervous tic triggered by the word 'top', if the last few times I've said it are any indication," Lily purred maliciously. "If you want a truce, it has to go both ways. I'll stop entirely if you tone it down. I think that's more than fair."

"Or we could just go all-out and see who breaks first," Gold growled. "There are only so many ways you can work references to one event into conversation."

"Oh, I can go much further than that. Maybe I'll spread the story of what happened as an amusing little anecdote about how males need to be shown their place," Lily threatened.

"I will brag about how you moaned and panted under me last night to every male I know," Gold countered. He didn't actually want to do that, if only because there were more effective ways to brag, but he had to respond in kind.

"You wouldn't," Lily hissed angrily.

"I will if you do the same, so do not try it," Gold said firmly, glad he had finally gotten the better of her-

"Fine. So what, we're just going to torment each other as we are now?" Lily asked irritably. "What do you _want_ out of this? What were you expecting to get?"

Gold found himself answering honestly simply because he saw no reason not to. "I want you to stop trying to control me like my Dam does my Sire."

Lily stared at him as if he was crazy. "And your brilliant plan was to humiliate me until I begged you to stop, and then hope that I just left it at that, with you having the upper paw forever? And you thought that would get you the happy, willing mate you told me you wanted just last night?"

Gold became acutely aware of the fact that they were arguing in an empty corridor, only just out of hearing range of the side-cavern Pina was occupying. Anyone could be listening in, and Lily was bringing up _private_ things now. "Stop talking about that. Yes! I thought that would work!"

"Do you think it will work now?" Lily asked impatiently, her tail lashing the air.

"No," Gold admitted. Certainly not now that she had found a counter. At this point, he would take the truce she had offered, but there was no way to bring it up again without looking and feeling as spineless as his Sire was.

"So-"

"Lily?" a rough, quiet female voice interrupted. Lily's eyes widened, and she stared at someone behind Gold. "What are you snarling about?"

"Just a little argument," Lily said quickly, addressing the female Gold couldn't turn and identify without looking like a clumsy fool at this point. He knew that voice, but he couldn't quite place it. Something was off, like it was lower than normal.

"Are you okay?" Lily continued, sounding worried. "Your voice is different."

"My throat hurts this morning," the female admitted. "You know why."

Lily's face hardened, and her anger no longer seemed directed at Gold at all. "Yes, I do. Do you need help coping?"

"No, it is just a bruise. Why are you arguing with Gold?"

"Just a lover's spat," Gold called out impulsively, twisting around to look the same way as Lily under the pretense of caressing her. She shoved him away with a wing and a disgruntled look, but he made it around in the tight corridor without looking ridiculous, or so he hoped.

And it appeared the female speaking was Pearl, with a dark discoloration on her neck, which explained why he thought he should be able to place her voice. "What happened to you?" he asked.

"Nothing," Pearl insisted. "What do you mean by-"

"We are mates as of yesterday," Lily interrupted, shoving past Gold and approaching Pearl. "You are sure you do not need help?"

"Yes, it does not hurt so much, it just makes my voice scratchy." Pearl shook her head. "Congratulations? You do not seem so happy about having a mate now."

Gold noted the wistful, dark tone in her voice and reluctantly dismissed it. He had promised Lily, and chasing Pearl was just going to have to wait, no matter how susceptible he thought she would be, obviously unhappy and possibly jealous. Lily needed to be dealt with before he could risk even contemplating anything else.

"I am, I am," Lily said quickly, "we're just… still working some things out. Want to go flying?"

"Sure," Pearl purred huskily, her throat apparently affecting that too. "Is Gold-"

"Gold is going to go do something else for a while, and think about what we've said," Lily interrupted, shooting Gold a cold glare. "I'll meet him at sundown, or whatever passes for sundown on a miserable day like today."

Gold knew he should argue with her trying to tell him what to do once again, but he didn't feel like trying to worm his way back into her good graces just yet, and some time away from her sounded like a good idea. So he said nothing, and obligingly flew in the opposite direction once the three of them were up in the air, immediately angling himself to break through the clouds.

Once he was up in the open air, he tried to think, to clear his head the way the air had cleared around him. He wanted to be in charge so as to avoid being like his Sire, and he wanted Lily to be a happy, enthusiastic mate. But his ways of getting those things clearly weren't working, or at least weren't working with each other, and she had quickly countered his newest tactic.

She had countered him, he was probably going to have to accept her truce, and she had the nerve to be mad at him! When she was the one trying to change him, trying to force him into obeying!

Gold seethed for a while, just letting his annoyance out in angry hisses and growls. He knew better than to let it fester; if he had ever done that, he would never have been able to win over any female, because he didn't have nearly enough patience to be happy with how long it took to get anywhere without seeming desperate.

Once he was done, he knew what he had to do. There was no point in denying that Lily had won this round in their struggle for control; that much was obvious. He was going to agree to _her_ terms. He would just have to not lose next time.

And if he wanted her happy and willing tonight, he would have to be a good sport about it, as frustrating as that might be. But it would be worth it, and it was his choice to do so.

With that in mind, he dove beneath the clouds and sought out the rock he and Lily had claimed the day before, staking out a place on it and covering his head with his wing. He would get some sleep and wait for her to return. Their struggle wasn't over, he was just letting her have this battle. Another way to try and gain control, to escape his Sire's fate, would come to him soon enough.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily didn't return until much later, as darkness was slowly falling across the valley. She landed on the open part of their rock, and with only a moment's hesitation lay right beside him, pressing her cold scales onto him.

"Back already?" he managed, having only dozed fitfully. It was hard to sleep in the driving rain with nobody around to share warmth. He uncovered his head to see her staring directly at him.

"I thought about what you said," she admitted quietly. "About not wanting to be controlled. I agree."

"To what?" He could feel his hopes rising within him as what she was saying sunk in.

"That I don't want to be controlled either," she clarified, crushing some of his hopes then and there. "Are we going to stop this stupid taunting game like I suggested earlier?"

"Yes, we are," he grumbled. "I will tone it down, and you will never again speak of this morning." He had added a little to her side of the deal, just to see if he could get away with it, but he didn't think she would object.

"Good. Are you going to keep trying to put yourself in charge?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he admitted. "I will not be like my Sire. You could just let me." Maybe, just maybe-

"No," Lily growled. She blinked irritably, clearing an errant raindrop out of her eye, and abruptly pulled her wing over both of their heads. "You do not want to be like your Sire?"

"You saw my Dam today, ordering him around and sending him away because she felt like it," Gold said bitterly. "I will not be like that. The way they are is boring and I will never let myself be ordered around so easily."

"So you agree that it would be just as boring if _I_ was so easily cowed?" Lily asked. "Surely if it is bad one way, it is bad the other."

"At least I would not be the one bending my neck in that case," Gold countered, feeling deeply unsettled. He hadn't thought of it like that.

"So let's just agree that we are equals, stop trying to control each other, and make peace," Lily offered. "I want to improve you, but I can make it fair."

"Fair?"

"You'll see. So, do we have a deal?"

"I do not want you to change me," Gold complained.

"I changed you from a desperate single male to a male who has what he wants," Lily hummed enticingly. "You'd be lying if you said you did not like that change."

"True… What do you want to change?"

"Like I said, you'll see," Lily insisted. "But I can hold off for a little while, and it will be _fair_. Not me controlling you or vice versa. Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes." He could always use her insistence on it being fair to stymie anything he didn't like, and not having to worry about becoming spineless and submissive would be a huge weight off his shoulders.

"Now," Lily hummed thoughtfully, "let's talk about your little suggestions and inside jokes."

"And?" Gold licked her face, safe in the knowledge that such a small movement would be invisible from outside the sheltering canopy of her wing, if there was even anyone watching.

"I am still getting used to this," Lily growled, shaking her head as if to dislodge the spit left behind. "But… you can make your little suggestions as long as you make them sparingly and with good intentions."

"Okay." He had already agreed to as much, and agreeing again lost him nothing while making her happy. He hadn't forgotten their _other_ deal, the first one made today, and having her in the mood was necessary for that one. "And you know, I _did_ go along and be polite to everyone today. You promised something in return, remember?"

Lily blinked and stared at him consideringly. "I did," she agreed. "To the ledge?"

"Who needs a ledge?" Gold asked impishly. "The way I see it, the rain will drown out any little noises, it will be dark soon, and we can flame ourselves with the excuse of being cold, meaning nobody will see anything at all if anyone glances over here in the first place."

"The rain will also cool our scales and make the camouflage wear off quicker," Lily objected. "And then we'd be exposed in the middle of the valley, and more than likely in the middle of something." Her warm voice suggested she didn't really mean that as a reason they shouldn't so much as an obstacle to be overcome.

"So, we will make it fast," Gold offered. "You up for that?"

Lily purred quietly, licking him back. "Let's try it, sure. But I'm stopping you the moment I feel our camouflage fading away, so you had better be _very_ fast."

Gold nodded enthusiastically. "I can do that." He didn't know about the future, but right now he definitely didn't think he was in any danger of acting like his Sire. This was _his_ idea, after all, not Lily's. And he knew she was embarrassed by this sort of thing, so she was stepping out of her comfort zone for his sake. He suspected she was aware of that, but still.

Neither of them was in any danger of falling into the one-sided relationship he dreaded. That was more than good enough for him.


	22. Gold - Confident (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 13.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: You know why we're here by now, I think. Time for part three of Gold's little mini-saga, and it's a long one.**

* * *

"Well, well, well, look, who has come crawling back."

"Crawling?" Gold smirked. "I think strutting is a better word for someone who has gone up in the world and knows it. Besides, we are both _flying_." He knew better than to take Cedar's taunt seriously; that was just how Cedar acted when he was jealous.

"If you have come to brag, get it over with," Cedar said seriously. "Ash will just get bogged down in simple things, and I do not want to embarrass any of the girls. How is she?"

Gold shook his head ruefully. "How crude of you. As a mated male, I am disgusted you would ask me such a vulgar question about my mate." He was joking now, but hopefully Cedar would drop it, because he had as good as promised Lily not to brag or give details about that. Given what she had held up as the consequence for doing so, he was _not_ going to tempt fate by saying anything too explicit.

"As a shameless chaser of females whose friend and fellow chaser has finally caught one, I say you had better spill it before the girls meet up with us," Cedar insisted. "Come on, was she any good? Did she purr afterward? Is it true that females like to-"

"It was great, and that is all I am saying," Gold said firmly. "I would feel bad about betraying her trust."

"Yeah, pull the other one," Cedar snickered. "Come on, is my agony funny to you? Give me details!"

"Maybe I do find your suffering funny," Gold shot back. "We both know you have to build trust before you can break it, and she is very observant. I do not feel like risking her annoyance for _you_ , of all people." Usually he and Cedar got along pretty well, but something about Cedar today was annoying him.

Cedar flung his wings forward, slowed down dramatically, and lunged at Gold's tail. Gold dove forward to avoid it out of reflex, all too familiar with Cedar's first resort when annoyed.

"Details, I am begging you," Cedar repeated desperately. "I have to wait at least another season-cycle, maybe more, and Lily is so sleek. Let me live through you at least."

Gold spotted several white shapes rising to meet them, and dove to close the gap even further, wanting to shut Cedar up. "I already told you all you get to know."

"So, I should take it she is terrible, a total letdown you cannot bear to speak of?" Cedar called out from behind him.

"No, you should take it that she is so good I do not want to make her mad for your sake and risk being given the cold shoulder," Gold retorted. "I care more for my own pleasure than yours." At this point, he wasn't going to give in, just to spite his friend; Cedar should know he was capable of sticking to a resolution once making it.

"So much for your talk of not being cowed by your mate," Cedar chortled. "It sounds like she has you by the second tail."

"At least mine _is_ a second tail, not a stubby extra frill," Gold shot back, banking around to fly in formation with the other five light wings of Cedar's season-cycle, those who would be making the transition from fledgling to adult at the next ceremony.

"Are you two comparing lengths again?" Danda, one of the three females, asked, huffing as if offended by the very idea.

"Maybe," Cedar admitted, falling in opposite Gold. "Want to help us settle it by measuring? Liona? Mist? Any takers?"

The three females all cast Cedar near-identical looks of disgust. Mist spoke for the three of them. "Not on your life."

"Besides," Root, one of the males, was quick to add, "Gold's mate would not like that."

"Gold has a mate?" Ash, the other male, asked curiously. It was possible he just hadn't heard the news yet, though it had been five days, but Gold was pretty sure he had forgotten. He wasn't the sharpest claw on the paw, to put it mildly.

"Yeah, Lily," Root supplied helpfully. "What made you pick her, Gold? Did your Dam say she was the best?"

"Not all of us let our Dams decide things for us," Gold said scornfully. "She had nothing to do with my choice. I just decided that Lily was the best of the three." He didn't know if Crystal had spread word of her newfound disgust for him around, but if she hadn't he certainly wasn't going to make it known. He looked better if it was him deciding she wasn't the optimal choice, not her dumping him and making it an easy decision.

"Oh, so _that_ is why Honey has moved off of her parents' rock," Ash exclaimed. "And Crystal, too. Did they pick mates?"

"Ash, please tell me you did not forget how this works," Mist groaned. "They both went to Claw."

"Lucky him," Cedar murmured enviously.

"So, Gold," Liona ventured timidly. "If you and Lily are mates, why is she not here with you now?"

"We do not do _everything_ together," Gold said dismissively. "We agreed to go do our own things today and meet up tonight, and that was that." He didn't really know what Lily meant to do with the day, but as long as she remained faithful, which really wasn't in question, it didn't matter to him. He just liked that neither of them had needed to explain what they intended to do to the other. That felt like neither of them controlling the other, and he liked that feeling.

"And Lily has never really hung out with us like you or Crystal," Mist mused thoughtfully, "so she would not really want to be here anyway."

"That reminds me, Crystal said she would be meeting up with us at noon," Root offered. "So, we should circle back over the valley then."

"She can find us if she feels like it," Gold countered, not entirely happy with the prospect of being around Crystal so soon after she had spurned him, even if it was in a group setting. It wouldn't be easy to avoid her with the close, banter-prone nature of the people around him; he couldn't exactly make the excuse of holding a private conversation with someone else.

"What is our flight plan for today?" Danda asked, setting off an argument over whether they should fly out over the forest or the ocean. Whether they would be flying at all wasn't in question, that was what this particular group met up to do, as flying was the one thing they all held as a common interest aside from being close in age, but where to go was just as hotly-contested as always. Gold ignored the good-natured bickering, but it was a comforting piece of normality.

As they argued, the group passed over the mountains, and Gold happened to look down. A purple flash had caught his eye, a reflection he was coming to associate with one light wing in particular. What was Lily doing up on the mountaintop?

He was too far up in the air to actually tell; she seemed to be alone, pacing along a narrow shelf of rock. That was all he could make out, and then they passed over the peak and she was no longer in sight anyway.

He would have to ask tonight, if only to sate his curiosity. There wasn't anything of interest up there, as far as he knew, but he had been wrong before, and Lily didn't strike him as the kind of person to wander without purpose.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold could tell Lily was upset, or had been upset recently, the moment she started speaking. Her voice was scratchy and breathless, though outwardly she appeared fine. Her words were also completely innocent, though, and she didn't volunteer an explanation immediately.

"I spent the day with Cedar, Ash, and the rest of their season-cycle," Gold said casually in response to a polite question, and wrapped his tail around hers as he settled down beside her on their rock. "Crystal was supposed to show up, but she never did. Aside from that, nothing very interesting happened. How about you?"

"I saw Crystal, but I don't know why she wouldn't show up," Lily admitted. "And I met with some other people I had not talked to in a while. That was my day, and probably even more boring than yours. Have you eaten recently, or should we go for a late meal?"

"I have eaten," and in fact he had eaten too much thanks to an ill-advised competition, though she didn't need to know that, "but you are hiding something. Why are you upset?"

"I'm not, though," Lily said, sounding entirely innocent. Her eyes were wide and open, as if she had been shocked by his accusation. "I'm really not."

"Not now, maybe," he persisted, sure he was right. She was surprisingly hard to read when she wanted to be, so catching any clear signs at all either meant he had caught her off-guard… Or she was playing him, a possibility he couldn't dismiss out of paw.

"Not now…" Lily shrugged her wing shoulders uncomfortably. "Fine. One of the conversations I had today was not pleasant, to say the least, but that was my fault and everything is fine now."

"Someone was-" Gold began, feeling offended, only to be cut off almost immediately.

"I was only suffering the consequences of my own actions," Lily said firmly. "I deserved it. Now please, stop asking about it. It's over and I want to move on."

"I at least want to know who," Gold bargained. He wanted to know who to glare at and possibly intimidate next time he saw them. Lily was _his_ mate, and nobody was allowed to hurt her or roar at her, even if she did think she deserved it.

"You wouldn't know them," Lily said confidently.

"How do you know? I know a lot of people." He tightened his tail around hers for a moment, being careful not to send the wrong message by squeezing so tightly as to hurt. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he was trying to physically force answers out of her. Knowing her, she would find some way to respond in kind, but worse. "I want to know who to growl at."

"No, I want the two of you to get along," Lily said tentatively. "How about I bring you to talk to them in a few days? I promised to anyway."

"Is this some scorned family member you forgot to tell about us?" Gold asked skeptically. He really didn't feel like doing the polite pleasantries again; that was the sort of thing one was only supposed to have to do once. He had been enjoying not having to see his parents every day. Meeting with yet another relative felt like losing that independence.

"Yes, but not really," Lily explained cryptically. "That was not what he was mad about, anyway. He is eager to meet you."

"He? And eager to meet me specifically?" He was almost certain she wasn't speaking of Claw, because there would be no reason to hide his name so thoroughly, and she had said he didn't know this light wing, whereas everyone knew Claw. But Lily didn't have any other male relatives; of that, he was also certain.

"Like I said, in a few days. Just keep this quiet, okay?" She requested that in a way that did not really feel like she was offering him much of a choice.

"I can wait," he agreed. "Now… Want to go to the ledge?" Their experiment with clandestine mating out in the open had gone well enough, at least in his opinion, but there was no rain to obscure them tonight, the sky clear and cold.

"Not tonight," Lily said with a laughing purr. "I want the both of us well-rested for tomorrow morning. I have something planned."

"Okay." He was more than happy to let plans of _that_ nature remain secret, and extremely pleased that she was still as enthusiastic as him when it came to mating, having not once outright rejected a good opportunity. He attributed that to his talent and to the safe lack of consequences she somehow enjoyed.

Gold closed his eyes and snuggled closer to his mate, happy that all seemed to be more or less right with the world.

O-O-O-O-O

"Flying?" Gold asked disbelievingly. "You woke me up before dawn to go _flying_?"

Lily pawed at his wing shoulders, pushing this way and that and rocking him from side to side. "Yes, I did, now come on. You were energetic enough just a few moments ago."

"That was because of _how_ you woke me," Gold grumbled. He was a late sleeper, and the only thing that could make him happy about getting up early was what he had thought she meant by wanting him to be well-rested. She could have said they were just going to go flying before dawn; he would have done his best to sleep through her licking and biting at his frills. Now not only was he awake, he was crestfallen.

"I'm not going to let up," Lily threatened, pushing down on his left shoulder. "Move your rear or the claws come out."

Gold pushed his hind paws up, shook his hindquarters at her, and then let them fall to the ground once more. "Rear moved. Now let me go back to sleep." He could have wheedled for a quick mating session in return for doing as she asked, but sleep was looking like the more attractive option for once in his life.

Lily choked back a laughing rumble in favor of a strained growl and continued to knead at his shoulders. "Funny," she admitted, "but not as funny as me rolling you off of this rock and into the mud would be. You'd have trouble going back to sleep then."

Gold shuddered in spite of himself; he knew she didn't make idle threats, and that sounded miserable. He would have to get up, shake himself, either laboriously wash himself off at the pond or take a freezing dip in the ocean, and by the time he was done with all of that there would be no chance of sleeping in anyway…

"Can we fly and then come back here to sleep more?" he asked hopefully. Maybe she just wanted a quick lap around the valley.

"I do not have _just_ flying in mind," Lily purred sultrily. "Follow along and do what I do, and we will end our little excursion at the ledge. Deal? You only have to match me."

"To match you?" It might be his groggy mind getting in the way of itself, but he wasn't sure why she had put it like that. Regardless, it sounded like a great deal if he wasn't going to be allowed to sleep late anyway. "Fine."

"Good," Lily purred, still rubbing his shoulders. "Now come on, let's get out of here before the sun rises."

O-O-O-O-O

Up in the air, cutting through the biting cold on stiff wings, Gold regretting his decision to give in. He flapped harder, trying to work some warmth into the extremities of his wings. His shoulders felt good, great even, but the rest of him needed to be worked a bit before he could be at all comfortable doing anything but lying still.

"We should figure out a better way to sleep," Lily suggested, flying above and to the right of him, her eyes reflecting the just barely rising sun on the horizon. "I'm sore, and I think it's because I woke up with my back more curved than my tail, and your paw under my neck. Well, that and not being used to flying in the morning."

Gold nodded in agreement, wondering as he did what she usually did with her mornings. She wasn't a late sleeper as she usually woke him up, but she always waited and let him fish for the both of them, meaning she wasn't spending the morning doing that, like most of the people he knew well enough to know their routine.

His stomach contracted painfully at the thought of fish, and he veered toward the ocean without even thinking about it. He was hungry, so he was going to eat. Then maybe sleep some more…

"No, we're not going that way yet," Lily called out, dropping in front of him and turning away from the dark waters he was aiming for, headed out toward the endless forest. "We can go for fish after everything else."

"You want me to fly and mate on an empty stomach?" Gold complained.

"No more empty than my own, and yes," Lily retorted. "I'm told that we can go days without food if needed, and I'm also told that given how much I eat, I should be exercising a lot more."

"Who told you that?" Gold asked plaintively. "I want to bite them." He knew he _could_ just fly away from her and fill his stomach regardless, but he was sure she would withhold the promised reward if he did. They were equals in that she didn't order him around, but she…

He realized, in that moment, hungry and yet turning away from the waters that promised food, flying after his mate at dawn when he would rather be asleep, all for the promise of mating later, that Cedar had been right. She did have him by the second tail, so to speak, and she was leading him wherever she wanted with that advantage.

The worst part was that he knew he didn't have the same hold over her. If he threatened to withhold mating, she wouldn't be all that bothered, and would probably be mad at him for trying to control her. She never _withheld_ it, she just offered it as a reward, and he couldn't do the same because they both knew he would jump at the chance to give that same reward whenever she wanted.

"Speed up, match me," Lily called back, flying faster now. "Come on, there is no way I can fly better than you!"

Gold was broken out of his self-pitying thoughts by that taunt. He noticed that the sun was more than halfway above the horizon, that they were out over the forest, and that Lily was getting away.

Not happening! He _was_ stronger and faster than her, and it wasn't just his pride saying that. He powered forward, flinging himself into every wingbeat, and shot past her with ease, though he was panting by the end of it.

"Too fast," Lily roared from behind him. "Match me!"

She kept saying that, and he still didn't understand it. This was a race, wasn't it? He had won. That was all there was to it.

Still, he wanted to bask in his victory, so he slowed down to let her catch up. "I won," he crowed. "Bet you have never gone that fast."

"Never," she readily agreed. "I'm not much for flying. Apparently, that's part of the problem."

"What problem?" He didn't mind beating her in races, but mention of a problem set him on edge, because so far he didn't tend to like her way of solving things.

"I'm out of shape," she said bluntly, breathing heavily as they flew.

"You are not," he protested, feeling compelled to correct that inaccuracy. She was _slim_ , not overweight; if anything, she could do with _more_ fat to round out some places. "You are thin."

"I said out of shape, not overweight," she corrected, still breathing heavily. They hadn't slowed down; this was somewhere close to her top speed, as far as he knew. "Can't fly very fast for very long… Can't run for long without having to stop… Less energy than I should have, tired quicker overall, just less efficient… That's what I was told."

"Who is telling you all of this?" Gold demanded. He wanted to claw at and bite whoever was making Lily feel she had to drag them away from home in the early morning to fly and not eat, and he wanted to _really_ hurt them for disparaging his mate. Not only was she a reflection on him, she clearly didn't like what had been said about her, and it was his responsibility to protect her from cruel words as surely as physical attacks.

"The same person who told me how to fix all of it, in detail," Lily panted. "So, we're flying today, and we're running tomorrow, and the day after we're wrestling. All in the morning, all for as long as we can manage without collapsing."

"Wrestling?" Gold asked, intrigued. He liked the sound of that.

"Yes, wrestling," Lily huffed. "That's for strength. Flying for wings and stamina, running for legs and stamina. There… might be more, but we're… starting with those." She was clearly running out of energy, huffing faster and faster and struggling to speak, but she didn't slow down, keeping to the punishing pace that Gold was feeling in his wings now, though he felt he could keep going for a long while yet with no issues.

"You really are quick to tire," he observed.

"Yes…" She abruptly flung her wings open and slowed dramatically, dropping into a glide with the air of one who simply could not do any more… Which might be close to the truth.

"That was awful," she groaned through gritted teeth once he had circled back around and fallen back in with her at her new, leisurely pace. She was still panting, though through her nose now, which was an improvement.

"Are we done here?" Gold asked hopefully.

"No," she gritted. "Five times, he said, so I'll do ten. I won't quit."

"Ten of those?!" He looked her over. "You would not even last five." He didn't know if _he_ could do ten times the length they had spent at that speed just now; even he had limits.

"We will see," Lily shot back.

"Why is this so important?" Gold asked, hoping that a trick stolen from her, questioning the underlying reasons for doing something, would still work _on_ her. It certainly worked on him.

"It… just… is… "

Well, he wasn't going to get a more eloquent answer than that if she could barely breathe. He dropped that line of questioning, at least for the moment, and set himself to thinking about what he was supposed to do with this.

Not exploit it; he didn't know how he would, and he wasn't supposed to be trying to control her anymore. That was no fun, not when it would just turn personal when she struck back with something worse and more effective, and he _liked_ the truce they had settled into. She was starting to relax around him, and he her, more so than ever before. This was how things were supposed to be.

Almost, anyway. He needed to figure out how to break her hold on him when it came to mating, because she was using it to inconvenience him, but other than that, he liked how things were now.

Lily sped up once more, still panting even as she pushed herself, and Gold found himself following at a similar pace, feeling uneasy. He didn't like pushing himself as a general rule, and she clearly didn't either, but she was doing it anyway, all for somebody he didn't even know the name of.

He didn't know much about this person yet, but he knew he didn't like them. She was _his_ mate, and she barely listened to him sometimes. Why was she so worked up over what some other dragon told her?

He stewed over that fact for a while, mentally counting as Lily slowed down then sped up another four times, each grueling iteration shorter than the last. He was beginning to feel it too, but nowhere near as badly as she clearly was.

At five repetitions, she hesitated longer than before, but soon she was starting her sixth. That was where it all went wrong.

Gold was, as luck would have it, flying beneath her at the time. He liked looking at the sky, and he liked looking at Lily's underside framed by the sky even more. He was bored, and she was a good distraction.

So, he was looking right at her when she failed to pull her wings all the way up after yet another powerful push downward to maintain speed. She tried, and then once she couldn't do it she tried to just spread her wings and hold them out, but they crumpled entirely when she did that.

And then she was falling.

Gold almost didn't react in time; he only barely realized what was happening in time to lurch forward and snag her tail with his paws, and she was far too heavy for him to lift.

In heartbeats, they had gone from flying above the forest separately to falling toward it together. Lily's tail jerked and pulled at his legs, throwing him off-balance even as he struggled to get enough power beneath his frantic wingbeats to slow their freefall into something survivable, and he dipped to one side, veering off toward the ocean.

He didn't have time to panic, which was good, because that was the worst possible development. They might be hurt crashing through the trees, but they would _definitely_ drown if they hit the water too far out.

They passed over the shore, and Lily jerked down on his paws once more, yanking her tail from his grasp entirely. He roared something incoherent as her weight disappeared, but he instinctively spread his wings to stop his own plummet, now that he was capable of doing so, without even thinking about it.

A heartbeat later, he realized what he had done and folded his wings in entirely, hoping to reach her and grab her again, but he was too late, and even as he dove she splashed into the water near the shore.

 _Near_ the shore. He leveled out just short of crashing himself, shoved his tail to the side and forced a tight turnaround, and skimmed the surf as he frantically looked for her.

There was still no time for conscious thought; he didn't have time to worry about what it would mean for him if she was dead, or how he would explain it, or how he would find a new mate afterward. None of that went through his head as he desperately hoped for her to surface, to be alive, to survive. None of that mattered.

Then her white head broke the water, far closer to the shore than he had anticipated, and he roared in relief as he skimmed past her, landing clumsily in the sand in his haste to be out there helping her.

Lily, for her part, didn't seem to need his help; by the time he had recovered from his crash landing and turned to run out into the shallows, she was collapsing just above the tide line, her entire body quaking with exertion, water running off of her, strands of water plants tangled in her frills and around her tail. She lay on her side and looked to his eyes like a corpse might look after being washed up by a storm.

But her chest was heaving, her eyes were open, her nostrils flaring as she sucked in air. She was alive.

He ran to her and crouched by her head, looking into her wide grey eye. Asking 'are you okay' would be the height of stupidity, and he was starting to slow down and think now that the danger had passed, so he didn't say anything while she slowly calmed down.

A long time after her breathing had returned to something akin to normal, she closed her eyes and groaned.

"Is anything broken?" Gold found himself asking. At least it was a more practical question than the first one that had come to mind.

"No idea." Lily feebly flexed each paw, kicking in the air. "Not my legs. Not my head. Not my chest." Her tail slapped against the sand. "Sore tail, not broken though. Wings…"

Gold held his breath as she laboriously rolled onto her stomach and spread her wings. They quaked dramatically, to a point where if she had not just _fallen out of the sky_ he would think she was faking it.

"Wings feel like water," she moaned, letting them fall limp on the sand to either side of her, "but they felt like that before I fell. Nothing broken."

"Good," he said, leaning in and resting his chin on her forehead. She smelled salty and disgusting, but he did it anyway. "Are you going to get up?"

"No," she replied. "I'm just going to lay here a while longer."

He didn't question that decision. "Then I am going to go get fish, if we will be here much longer." He felt like blasting the ocean with his strongest bolts of fire anyway, just to relieve the pent-up tension making him jittery. Getting the food his stomach still demanded would just be a good excuse.

O-O-O-O-O

By the time he returned, Lily had walked all of five paces to a small hill of sand and managed to bury herself up to her haunches, for some reason. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them once the smell of fresh fish hit her.

He purred a little at that; approaching from upwind of her had been a smart idea. "Here," he offered, dropping one just shy of her face. The rest were for her too, as he had eaten as he fished, but he felt like doling them out one by one, if only to get her talking.

"Thank you," she murmured, taking the fish and swallowing it whole. "For everything."

He knew she meant him grabbing her and probably saving her life over the forest, and under different circumstances he might have been miffed that she thought a simple thank you was enough to pay him back. But thinking that of his mate, who had just almost died, just felt childish.

"It is really just a good thing I was there," he said, not even thinking about the fact that he had just approved of the very thing he had been resenting all morning, her getting him up early to go with her. All of that petty resentment felt distant, worthless in the face of what might have happened had she not bothered to bring him along. What was some discomfort against possibly losing his mate?

"Pyre told me to always bring a spotter, just in case," Lily mumbled around another mouthful of fish.

Pyre? That was a name, which meant he now knew exactly who had put her up to this. The only problem was that he didn't _know_ anyone named Pyre. There weren't _that_ many light wings in the valley, and he knew most of them, but not this one.

"This _Pyre_ person also almost got you killed," Gold growled, working through that thought and its ramifications even as he spoke. "He told you to push yourself, and you did, and if I had not been there you would have died. This is his fault."

Lily shook her head wildly at that. "No, not at all! He told me to do five of those, and I did more. I only fell on the sixth one. If I had just stuck to what he said, I would have been fine."

Gold did, however reluctantly, remember something to that effect. "Well," he growled, "that was a really stupid thing to do then, I think." He still didn't like Pyre, whoever he was, and was going to have some choice words for him when Lily introduced them. Pyre had put her up to this, and now she had almost died. It was still his doing, if not entirely his fault.

Lily let her head fall to the sand she was partially buried in, and sighed loudly. "Yes, it was stupid. I know. But I couldn't exactly tell where my limits were if it all felt horrible, so how would I have known? I _felt_ like I was going to collapse after the second one, even though I didn't."

"So you should not have been doing it at all," Gold retorted. "This is not necessary."

"It is, and I have been meaning to start improving myself long before now, but I always put it off," Lily huffed. "And you, but we are supposed to be equals and we both need to work on things, so I thought we could do it together, and that way it would be fair."

"And it almost got you killed," he repeated.

"Trying to do more than I was supposed to almost got me killed," Lily repeated stubbornly. "Besides, I know my limits now, and how else am I supposed to be safer aside from working on it?"

"I hate that you never do things without a reason," Gold grumbled, lying down in front of her. "That makes it so hard to change your mind about anything." He also hated that she always seemed to be right; he couldn't think of a retort to that which didn't boil down to 'so just don't fly', which was not an answer to anything.

"Sorry, not sorry," she whispered. "Gold?"

"Yes?"

"My wings feel terrible," she admitted. "I really overdid it. I think I will have to walk back."

Gold looked over at the treeline, and at the distant mountains, and estimated how long that would take. He didn't like what he came up with. "That will take you until past dark!"

"I know," she groaned. "But I do not think flying is a smart move. I will have to start soon."

"I guess I will walk with you," he sighed. That promised to be extremely boring, but what else could he do? Fly back to the valley and pretend to his friends that he had _not_ left his mate to walk all day? Even if he could do that, it would give her yet another event to hold over his head if she ever needed to, and it would mean he couldn't talk about his heroic actions in saving her. He definitely wanted to brag about that once he didn't feel a surge of panic from just remembering those frantic moments.

"You will?" Lily asked, her voice low and considering. "Thank you. Really. You don't have to, but if you want to, I certainly am not going to complain."

Gold purred loudly at the surprise and gratitude in her voice; for once, he felt like he had gotten the best of the situation, even if they were not striving to control each other any longer. He had gone along, saved her life, brought her food, and now was going to walk her back like a polite, helpful mate, and he didn't in the slightest feel like his Sire bowing to his Dam. _She_ needed _his_ help, and she was asking or hoping for it, not demanding it. That made all the difference.

O-O-O-O-O

They did not talk all that much on the walk back, though it did indeed take the rest of the day and much of the night. By the time they had reached the foot of the mountain, finally clear of the forest, the moon was shining brightly down on them.

Gold spread his wings and shook them; he wasn't used to not using them for most of a day. "Looks like it is time to fly."

"My wings still feel boneless," Lily reminded him. "There's a path up and down the other side. We can walk the rest of the way, too."

"Flying would be quicker." He remembered something from that morning. "Maybe if I press my paws on your wing shoulders? That helped me loosen up when you did it." He was tired and ready to go to sleep, and Lily surely had to be even more so. If they flew, they would be there in moments.

"Every part of my wing, not just the shoulders," Lily said apologetically. "I don't think it's the same thing. But thank you for offering. Can we just walk quickly?"

"Sure," he acceded, not seeing any point in pushing it. She wasn't a whiner, as the day's events had proven, so if she said she couldn't do it, she really couldn't. If this had been Honey, for instance, he wouldn't believe her when she said she really couldn't fly after that long walk, but Lily was another matter entirely.

The path Lily led him to was well hidden, but what surprised him most was that it seemed intentional. He had expected a daunting climb up sloped rocks and plenty of jumps, not a sloping incline that doubled back on itself but never faltered, at some points clearly cut into the rocks.

How had he never noticed this? He prided himself on having ferreted out every little hiding place mating might be done in, and had thought he knew them all, but several of the deeper cuts in the stone of the mountainside he was currently walking through would serve perfectly as a clandestine meeting point. It wasn't like this path was in use; nobody walked up and down a mountain when they could fly the same path and be done in a hundredth of the time.

Or was it? Lily stopped short and blocked the way, looking back at him with weary eyes. "Go quietly for the next bit," she advised. "Someone lives up here, and he's probably asleep. I really don't want to wake him and have to explain all of this."

"Pyre?" It was simple to connect the tracks; there was a male he didn't know somewhere within reach, and there was a mystery dragon he didn't know sleeping up here.

She nodded significantly. "I'll bring you up to meet him tomorrow, just please don't wake him now."

If he hadn't been tired, he might have wanted to defy her on that point, to make noise and bring this mystery dragon out, but it was late and he just wanted to be home. It could wait.

So, when they passed a nice ledge and an obvious cavern, and he smelled the telltale scent of a male's territory, the smell that was usually reserved for the rocks down in the valley, he held his tongue and just kept going.

Besides, he had something else to think on. That scent had definitely carried a telltale similarity to that of his mate; Pyre really was related to her in some way. Was it possible he was her true Sire, and her Dam unfaithful to Claw?

No, definitely not. He caught up to Lily once they had reached the floor of the valley and inhaled, deeply taking in her scent. He could smell Claw, and while he didn't know Lily's Dam's scent well enough to positively identify it, that was enough to rule out his theory.

Then they were within sight of their rock, and he let all other thoughts out of his mind, leaving it all for another time. It was times like this he was glad he no longer lived with his parents; his Dam would never believe their reason for being out late. He wouldn't have believed it himself.

O-O-O-O-O

The next morning, he woke to the sound of muffled grunts of pain. Try as he might to ignore it, a little nagging feeling in the back of his mind prodded him into waking up fully to investigate. It was his duty as her mate to care, and he did, he just wished she would sleep as late as him.

"Cramps everywhere," she explained shortly. Her wings were spasming, proving her point. "I think it will go away?"

"Maybe. Should I try rubbing your wing shoulders now?" he offered, feeling bad for her.

"You would do that? Yes, please." She shuffled over to let him get at her back.

He didn't really know what he was doing, so he just tried to press down on whatever part of her back spasmed worst and rub the scales around with the pads of his paw. If her occasional grunts and small moans of relief were any indication, it was working.

The somewhat familiar sounds of her beneath him brought something to mind, or rather a lack of something. They had gone the entire day before this one without mating, thanks to Lily's accident and the long walk back. Had he really forgotten about that?

The actual lack didn't bother him. He could always call in her promise later, once she was more able to enjoy it. The more pressing matter was that he really didn't mind, and for once the evocative sounds and feel of a female beneath him, however innocent the current occupation, was not really tempting him.

He took a long look at her hindquarters and reassured himself that nothing was wrong with his desire; she was still extremely attractive to his eyes. He just didn't feel like this was the time for any of that, no matter how provocative this should be.

 _This_ was the key to not letting her lead him around by the second tail, this feeling right here. He certainly didn't want to feel like this all the time, but sometimes was not a problem, and if he could just time those instances with her trying to lead him around, he could convince her it didn't work so well anymore.

Lily groaned especially loudly and stretched beneath his paws, flapping her wings experimentally. "That's good," she decided. "Thank you. I really needed that."

"No problem," Gold purred, pushing off of her and returning to all four paws. "I enjoyed it too."

She cast him an amused look. "I'm sure you did," she drawled. "Do we need to go up to the ledge before we do anything else today?"

He decided to make use of the feeling and surprise her. "Maybe later," he said casually.

"Oh," she replied, as surprised as he had hoped she would be. "So… Do you want to go meet Pyre now?"

He had almost forgotten about that! It was a good thing she had brought it up again. "Yes," he said firmly. "Right now?"

"Before we eat?"

"Right after," he conceded. He wanted to be intimidating, and that was hard to do on an empty stomach.

O-O-O-O-O

Some time later, with a full stomach and a renewed anger at the one who had gotten them into the mess the day before, Gold landed on the ledge Lily had requested he sneak by the night before, following Lily's lead. He was not showing his anger, of course, because she would object as she had before, but he felt it all the same.

"Pyre?" Lily called out politely. "I brought him, like I promised."

A mostly nondescript male with deep red eyes emerged from the darkness of the cave, his steps small and his body screaming submission. He glanced up at Gold once, and then stared down at his paws.

Gold couldn't connect what he was seeing to the anger he felt; how could this dragon convince Lily of anything? He looked old and broken, and the empty wings on his back only magnified that appearance. He was a cripple, obviously unable to fly, and Lily took advice on flying from him?

This wasn't right. Gold shifted his stance almost unconsciously, crouching and preparing for a trick, a surprise of some sort. This _couldn't_ be right; something more was going on. He didn't know how he knew that so instinctively, but he did. As one accustomed to manipulating people, he recognized this as a trick.

"Come on, Pyre, you can at least look at him," Lily said neutrally. "He's not going to hurt you."

"I see him," the male whined, his voice old and frail. "He seems good. Can I go now?"

Gold snuck a quick glance at Lily, but he couldn't determine whether the pity and careful neutrality she was displaying was real or false, just as he couldn't decide whether the decrepit, broken old dragon in front of him was really Pyre.

"Okay," he eventually burst out, unable to stand it, "I know _something_ is going on here. This cannot be Pyre. Take me to the real light wing who you value so highly." That was the weak point in this charade; the way Lily had spoken of him before now and how she reacted to him now didn't match.

Lily stared at him with wide eyes, and then at the male Gold was now certain was not Pyre.

"Well," the male said, his voice suddenly firm and not nearly so weathered, though he did retain the pure age that now added weight to his words, "that certainly is something." He looked up, his posture changed in an instant, and suddenly he was nothing like he had been before. His eyes were strong and full of intent, and they bore into Gold like they could see his every thought.

Gold took a step back, and then another. He had expected another light wing to emerge; that it was _all_ an act shook him to his core, because the one thing he had taken for granted was that the dragon in front of him really was what he seemed to be. Lily's discrepancies had put him on guard, but Pyre's performance had not.

"Do you know how he figured it out, Lily?" Pyre asked indulgently. "I think he gave us a hint in how he said that."

"I was not expecting you to put on the 'old, feeble dragon' act you've clearly been practicing for decades and never showed me," Lily complained. "I think I did pretty well in playing along with _no prior warning_ , but I didn't talk about you like you were that persona before now. Even not giving details, that's enough to put a crack in the façade."

"It was a spur-of-the-moment decision," Pyre agreed amiably. "And you did do very well. Not even a moment of confusion."

Gold had not taken another step back, but only because the end of the ledge lay just behind him. He was, to put it bluntly, intimidated. Lily's competency and sneakiness had been a shock; this was flat-out scary. He was used to being the one to lead others on, not being led on obliviously himself.

"But we are being rude to your mate," Pyre remarked, looking over at Gold. "Sorry for the trick, but I wanted to judge your perceptiveness, and that was the sort of opportunity that only comes along once."

"You did _really_ well," Lily added proudly, walking over to Gold and giving him a small shove toward the rest of the ledge, and by extension toward Pyre. "I didn't expect you to catch on at all."

"So this is Pyre?" Gold asked weakly. "There is not some other light wing hiding in the cavern, ready to jump out once I fall for this?"

"No, this is really him," Lily answered, rumbling in amusement. "Come on, he won't bite."

"Probably not, anyway," Pyre rumbled, stretching and lying on his side. His piercing eyes shifted from Gold to look out over the valley. "Maybe I overdid it."

Gold couldn't help but notice that Pyre spoke with the same particular slur that Lily did, and that led to a lot of other logical leaps he made in an instant. Lily knew this dragon well, she had spent enough time with him to talk like him. They were close, very close, from the easy, casual way she spoke to him and from how highly she held his opinion.

"Kind of," Gold admitted, inching forward as he slowly regained his composure. He shouldn't have been so shocked by a simple enough trick, but the flawlessness with which it had been pulled off was another thing entirely. Pyre lying in a vulnerable position and not looking at him helped him shake off the intimidation.

"Well, consider that test of your mettle too, then," Pyre rumbled. "Lily, would you mind much if I spoke to him privately for just a few moments?"

"I'll give you as long as it takes me to walk down to the valley and back," Lily volunteered. "And I want him back as confident and relaxed as he was before you scared him."

"I'll do my best," Pyre promised. Both he and Gold watched her go.

A few moments later, Pyre closed his eyes and rumbled quietly to himself. "Lily," he called out loudly, "I know you're listening in. I meant really alone!"

Another long beat of silence elapsed.

"Gold, go over to the ledge and look to the side," Pyre instructed idly. "You should be able to see her walking from there."

Before Gold could even move, there was a quiet rustle of rocks falling, seemingly by chance.

"And _now_ we are alone," Pyre laughed. "She must really wonder what I will say, to try and listen in after I called her out."

"You are not mad at her?" Gold asked, overcoming his lingering intimidation with curiosity.

"No, it's just how she is," Pyre admitted. "Always snooping, always curious. She trusts me, and she tells me she is beginning to trust you, but she may very well not trust us to get along."

"Will we?" Gold asked, hating the quiver in his voice. He just couldn't help it; the only males he knew were all spineless or like Cedar, immature and annoying. He barely knew Claw and tried to avoid him. This male was the exact opposite, and carried a weight of age that even Claw could not manage. Even his worthless wings added to his appearance, making him seem unapproachably _different_.

"That depends." Pyre's eyes narrowed and turned to bore into his own once more. "I consider her my daughter. I would kill for her. So long as you respect her and treat her right, we will get along _marvelously_. I will even give you the benefit of doubt and assume all she told me of how you have acted up until recently is not really you."

Gold gulped nervously.

"I will do that for her sake," Pyre continued in the same cold, dangerous voice, his words underlaid with an ongoing snarl. "Because she plans to fix whatever needs to be fixed about you, and because she does not have any other options right now, and because so far you have exceeded her every expectation, low as they were. I will not interfere between you overmuch, either, because I know better. But if she comes crying to me about something horrible you have done, I will literally rip you apart, or die trying. Is that clear?"

Gold nodded, unable to even contemplate doing anything else. Maybe being under Lily's control wouldn't be so bad. It would protect him from this male's rage, since he would not be able to think much for himself and thus couldn't harm her, even accidentally…

Pyre relaxed his piercing glare and warbled happily. "Good. We are done with the obligatory 'I will kill you if you harm her' speech, and while I meant every word I don't think I need to worry too much."

Gold gaped at him, not caring about appearances anymore.

"Something tells me it will take a while for you to feel comfortable around me," Pyre mused, seemingly unbothered by the lack of response, "so I will not try to have a conversation right now. Instead, I would give you a few pieces of advice. I want to see the both of you happy, ideally, and I know Lily very well. There are a few simple things you can keep in mind that will make living with her much, much easier."

A waved paw was all Gold could manage, but he _did_ manage it.

"Always ask her what is wrong, and do not take 'nothing' for an answer," Pyre began. "This is a more general tip, not specific to her, but it is a good one. With Lily specifically, try to suggest solutions to the problem, as well as commiserating. Most people would not like that, but she will."

That _was_ good advice, and Gold was glad he had already begun to do as much, at least with the first part of it. Offering solutions hadn't really come up yet, and he would have thought she wouldn't like that; in his experience females wanted sympathy, not solutions, but he could try the other way.

"You should also try to push her to have fun," Pyre added, tapping his tail on the ground. "She might not want to sometimes, and of course, you should know when to back off, but she might need more pushing than you think. She does sometimes latch onto projects and not let herself relax. I have helped counter that in the past, but I think she will be relying more on you than me from now on."

"Okay," Gold said, his voice steadier than it had any right to be.

"Good, you're speaking again," Pyre purred. "Finally, don't let her push you around. She won't like a pushover, even if she acts like she thinks you should be one. Push back, where appropriate. She's not always right, and as long as you only push when you really think she is wrong, she will come to respect you for doing so."

"Really?" He meant it as a more general question, because this was not at all the tone he had expected the advice to take.

"Yes, she will," Pyre confirmed. "She is not the kind of person to hold a grudge over being opposed or proven wrong, so long as it isn't rubbed in her face long afterward. Be assertive _and_ considerate, and you won't have any problems. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Gold replied. "I understand."

Pyre smirked at that. "If you were not already her mate I'd let you call me Sir, but it feels like it's too late for that. Pyre or nothing, for you. We're family, in a sense, so you don't get to be distant."

"Understood." He would _like_ to be casual around this male, but that was going to take practice. It was a good thing Pyre seemed to be something of a secret, Gold didn't want anyone seeing him like this. It would be humiliating, and he'd never hear the end of it from someone like Cedar.

"And now, we're going to use this remaining time to try and put you back to normal," Pyre remarked. "I would ask you about yourself, but that's more likely to put you on the defensive, so I want you to ask me about myself for a little while. Your questions will tell me about you almost as well as answers to my questions would."

If that was meant to be reassuring, it missed the mark, because now Gold was nervous about how his questions would be interpreted. He settled for an easy, innocent one to start with. "What does your name mean?"

"My name? I suppose you would not know, it is not as if they are in use here," Pyre said slowly. "A pyre is a pile of wood, one with a specific purpose, usually used by No-scaled-not-prey to burn their dead."

"What kind of name is that?" Gold blurted out, startled out of his nervousness by the sheer ridiculousness of what he had heard.

"A sad one taken up by someone who does not have much hope," Pyre said somberly. "It doesn't fit me so well nowadays, and I was not given it by my parents… You know, I may have to think about going back to my first name someday soon. That is an interesting idea. Ask me something else."

The obvious question was easy enough. "What was your first name?"

"Ah, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Pyre retorted casually. "Lily doesn't even know that, and I'd never hear the end of it if she found out I told you before her."

"No, I wouldn't," Lily agreed, walking up the path and stopping to stare at the two of them. "So?"

"He's talking again, and that's no small feat," Pyre said knowingly. "I think there is potential here."

"That's just your way of saying he's not said anything obviously despicable yet," Lily quipped, looking from one of them to the other and back again.

"Sit by your mate," Pyre said firmly. "It would look like we were interrogating him if you sat with me."

"Instead, you will be interrogating us," Lily joked, going to sit right by Gold, lightly laying her tail on top of his.

"The opposite, actually. I asked him to ask me whatever questions came to mind." Pyre flicked his tail in Gold's direction. "What is your next one? Ask anything. Some things are not fun to talk about, but I can answer anything."

Gold nodded, feeling much more confident with Lily beside him. One thing was for sure; when he did eventually bring up the events of the day before and their cause, which he still meant to at some point, he wasn't going to do it rudely. He understood, now, why Lily took Pyre's words to heart. He was the kind of dragon who did not say things lightly.

That made the advice he had given all the more important, too. He would have to think about what Pyre had said later.

Right now, though, he would have to come up with a question, and fast, before they thought he was refusing to speak for some reason.

"Who are you?" he blurted out. "I mean," he hastily clarified, "why are you up here? How do you know Lily? How are the two of you related? What happened to your wings?"

"That'll take all day!" Lily mock-complained, lightly slapping him with her tail.

"But we do _have_ all day," Pyre countered. "Where to begin?"

_**Author's Note:** _ **Just in case anyone thinks this ending is some sort of cliffhanger, it's not; Pyre's just going to fill Gold in on the stuff Lily either directly took part in or has already heard about. That's why I cut off there; there's a lot of stuff we know that Gold doesn't, and this is a good chance to correct that off-camera.**

**Also, just as a more general note, I had fun sending Gold over to meet Pyre, because Gold is full of himself and Pyre is very much, in many ways, what Gold thinks he is, only more intense and better. Gold** _**would** _ **be intimidated by him no matter what by the time they got to the 'I'll rip you to pieces if you hurt her' part of their introduction. And of course, any time spent with Pyre in my writing is time well spent; I like his character and don't mind in the slightest saving his life in this AU. In a happier world, Pyre definitely lives. And Granite too, but that's another AU…**

**In case anyone is wondering about the bit about Pyre's name, no, I'm not going to reveal it here. Why? I can't answer even that question without spoiling something else, either in NSSA or in the main story. It's not plot-important here, so it's not going to happen. He** _**does** _ **have an original name, though, and has since the beginning. In fact, in the first draft of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **, he reveals it to Lily right before the Pyre scenes I showed in an earlier chapter of** _**No Story Stands Alone** _ **. That obviously doesn't happen in the actual story, though, so that name fell through the cracks of the plot. Guesses are welcome if anyone wants to try a shot in the dark!**


	23. Gold - Clever (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 23.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: You know why we're here by now, I think. Time for part four of Gold's little mini-saga.**

* * *

It all made so much sense now that Gold knew about Pyre. Of course, Lily was more than his equal when it came to manipulation; she had spent season-cycles learning from a master of the subject. Of course, she had been upset about something; she had gone to go tell Pyre she had lied to him, and he hadn't taken it well at all. Of course, she had pushed herself to do as he had suggested on some other, unrelated topic; she had wanted to make it up to him somehow.

That last one was the only one Gold didn't know for sure. The other two had quickly become apparent as Pyre, with Lily's frequent additions, had gone over everything they thought he needed to know. That included, by pure necessity as it was interwoven into the actions of both of them, Pearl's plight, Granite's reason for challenging, and Lily's lie to Pyre.

It included their plans to somehow, someday, overthrow Claw. It included the fact that Lily and Crystal had been playing him for moon-cycles, right up to eventually making it an easy choice for him.

Gold suspected it was this last revelation that had Lily looking so nervously at him as they flew away from Pyre's home. He had gone silent upon hearing of that, and Pyre had said they should probably leave. Lily didn't know how he was taking it.

 _He_ didn't know how he was taking it; they had overwhelmed him with a flood of new information, and he hadn't complained because he wanted to know. Now he knew. He knew too much.

Lily flew out in front of him and gently redirected his course, leading him over the mountain and around, toward a ledge. She landed there and turned to stare at him as he landed in turn.

"So…" she ventured, uncharacteristically timid. "That was a lot to process, I guess."

He said nothing. He knew she wanted a few reassurances and was probably going to use mating to ensure he felt like giving them, and really he could give her most of what she wanted to hear right now, but he didn't know what to think of that one thing in particular.

"The thing with Crystal and me, and you?" Lily guessed. "Is that what's bothering you?"

He nodded, looking at the mountainside behind her instead of her eyes. On the one paw, he should feel offended, used, manipulated, but on the other, they had only been trying to make sure his choice suited their ulterior motives, and those motives were unquestionably good, from their standpoint.

"I am not mad," he said quietly. "Just surprised." And that was the truth, really. He had manipulated the both of them, and apparently, they had manipulated him in turn. Fair was fair. Crystal's rejection had stung, but he now knew she hadn't wanted him anyway, and neither had Lily, not at first.

Or… not at all? He didn't believe that, refuting the doubt almost as soon as he had it. She had made herself far too vulnerable in the beginning, when convincing him not to chase other females, and now that he knew the extent of her deception, he thought he could see what had been real.

Too much information, but that part was not important. "You want me now, right?" he asked.

"Definitely, and I did then too, just in a different way," Lily admitted. She walked around to behind him and threw her weight across his back, sprawling out over his folded-in wings and lowering her head right next to his, looking him in the eye from behind. "I like you better when you are not quiet and shocked."

"I like me better that way too," he agreed. He could make a big deal out of it, but really, why would he? He had what he wanted, she had what she wanted, and everything was good. What was more, he felt like even more of a hero than before; not only had he saved Lily from falling to her death, he had apparently saved her from her own perverted Sire as well, without even trying.

"You know," he decided, shaking his head from side to side to lightly whack her with his ears, "you could have broken all of that stuff to me slowly, over the course of days."

"Incomplete information is dangerous," Lily grumbled, her voice right in his ear. "Not taking that chance."

And now that he knew about her past, he felt he knew her far better too. He understood that she was referencing the situation with Granite and Crystal, and giving advice without knowing all the ramifications.

He knew that talking about that mistake and Granite's death had made Lily cry, earlier that day, if only briefly.

"Well, no going back now," he said, dismissing the memory. "Are you afraid I will hold grudges or go crazy or act on anything you told me?"

"A little?"

"Do not worry. I can keep a secret." He already did keep secrets, and what was more, he kept secrets for other people. He had never told anyone some of the more _interesting_ pairings he had seen out on the ledges, for instance. There was no point in telling, especially when he could use the information for his own ends. Besides, there was so much of it that he wouldn't know what to do first, or who to tell.

"Even from Claw?"

"I think," he said with a low purr, "that I told you myself, a while back, that I plan on replacing him. I do not care how he goes."

" _I_ might replace him," Lily warned, shoving her flat chin down on his forehead and forcing his head down to his chest. "What would you do then?"

"No idea, but as long as you do not take other males as additional mates, I will hold to my promise." In no small part because he was pretty sure being unfaithful would call Pyre down on him like an avenging mad-dragon, but also because he had promised. After hearing so much about what Claw really did, he wasn't so enthusiastic about the idea of taking many mates, either. Even if the idea was still sound on its own, it felt tainted now.

"Deal. I don't want other males." She lifted her head, letting him look up a little. "What about Pearl?"

"Well, I just said I will not chase other females, even if she could really use a romantic, suave, kind male sweeping in and secretly showing her a good time," he rumbled. "Unless you would like to make an exception for a needy friend, and talk her into-"

"I don't care how helpful and comforting you might be, I'm not letting any other female have you," Lily snarled possessively. "That wasn't what I meant to ask. Pearl needs to be liberated, not distracted. The same goes for Crystal."

"Fine." He couldn't muster the concentration to be annoyed by that; she was shuffling her hindquarters now, shifting her weight further-

With a little hop and a push down on his shoulders, she was up, laying full along his back, her head on top of his and her paws dangling down next to his, her tail curled around his for balance. She was heavy, though not quite as heavy as she should be.

"What about us?" Lily purred seductively. "I owe you a _big_ thank-you for saving my life, and a _big_ apology for tricking you, and where we are opens up some interesting options…"

"Are we done making sure I can be trusted?" he asked hopefully.

"Let me see… Claw, Pearl, general secrets best kept that way… Yes, I think we're done. Do you have any more burning questions?"

"Just one." He craned his neck to get a look at his mate. "When you say a big apology and a big thank you, do you have anything specific in mind?" If she didn't, he was sure he could think of more than a few things. All of the new things he had learned didn't really matter to him now. He already had what he wanted, the only thing he had ever really wanted; an alluring, interesting, eager female, and no other responsibilities.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold roused late the next morning to his mate's groaning as she herself presumably woke. "Next time," she grumbled, stiffly stretching her legs, "you'll have to do more than saving my life to get all of that."

"What more can I possibly do?" Gold asked smugly. He was sure she didn't mean it; she had certainly enjoyed many of his more out-there suggestions. It was probably just a mistake to do them all one after another. He was feeling wrung-out too.

"I'll think of something appropriately momentous," she assured him, stirring under his outstretched wing and licking her paws.

"What is the plan for today?" he asked, purring quietly into the back of her neck. "We could stay here…"

"My plan is _not_ mating," she said vehemently. "Give me a few days to recover. We were supposed to go running today, but that can wait until tomorrow. Flying is a no-no. How about we just walk around the valley?"

"After we clean up, or are you looking to flaunt-"

A stinging tail-slap to his hindquarters cut him off. "No," Lily barked. "Help me clean up, or so help me Gold, I will do something you won't like at all."

"Like what?" he asked impishly.

"I'll drag you to your family's rock and spend all day asking your Dam for awkward stories," she said firmly. "And then, if I'm still annoyed, I'll think of something worse."

"I will help you," he quickly capitulated, and shuffled to start on her shoulder. He needed to remember that she didn't like being embarrassed, and that she often responded in kind.

"Thank you," she warbled. "So, what do you think of the whole 'Claw' situation now that you've had time to let it all sink in?"

"He needs to go, and things need to change," Gold replied shortly as he worked. "I agree with you."

"No, I meant what do you think about how it should be done?" Lily asked. "I admit that I'm not sure what the best approach is. I cannot just challenge, and even if I could, I wouldn't win. Nobody would. And I don't want to risk anyone's life like that."

"Well, _I_ am not challenging no matter what," he immediately reminded her. "No way, no how. Not only did I swear to him, I do not feel like dying."

"Get behind my ears if you are going to be doing my back," Lily requested as he worked his way across her. "I forgot about that. You know, you don't have to hold that oath."

"I can hold it and oppose him," Gold explained in between licks. "All I swore was to never fight and always follow. If he goes somewhere I will trail him, and I will not physically fight him, and that is as far as my word holds me."

Lily warbled a light, throaty laugh. "That works too. See, this is why I could never have a stupid mate."

"Why?" He was working his way down her side now, and he considered it a sign of her comfort with him that she didn't object. Or maybe she was just distracted; he wanted to keep her talking in case that was the reason he was getting away with this.

"I'd end up killing him in frustration and claiming he died in an accident the average light wing would easily avoid," Lily said lightly. "You know, to be ironic."

"Would the accident in that case actually be ending up your mate?" Gold asked, still working his way down. Lily had better not object to where his tongue was heading if she wanted to be totally clean. "You know, since that would be what killed him. So, you are saying any intelligent dragon would want to _avoid_ you?"

Lily looked back at him, her eyes travelling down to find his head. She stared at him, and then pointedly turned back to look out at the forest.

"Just saying," Gold purred. "Once I am done with you, will you help me clean up?"

"Only if the end result is you clean, not me dirty again," Lily laughed. "Are all newly mated pairs as eager as you-"

"Us," Gold cut in. "Do not claim you are not just as eager."

"Us, then," Lily agreed. "But you always start things."

"Only because someone has to and you are not comfortable doing so unless you have a good excuse," Gold supplied helpfully, working his way down the length of her tail now. He was taking a shot in the dark, but if it failed she would just laugh.

She didn't laugh. She turned to regard him with a far less amused stare, one that made him feel both proud and sheepish at the same time. "What do you mean by that?"

He decided to keep going with that line of thought, though she didn't sound all that happy with it, if only to see where it led. "Well, I mean, you use it as a reward, but you do not have to," he continued. "Just jump me whenever. Lead me out here at random. I would not mind."

"Think back," she objected. "I have done as much. I do not only start things when I have a good excuse!"

"But you do use excuses," he insisted. "You do not have to." Ideally, she'd stop using it as a tool of persuasion, too.

"I won't, then," she agreed. "But we still are going to go out and do something else with the rest of today, so if this was an elaborate ruse to change that, it failed."

"It was not." He shrugged his wing shoulders and gave her tailfins a cursory once over. "If I had a ruse, it would happen when you helped clean me off."

"And it will not?"

"Not if you do not want it to." He really had not planned on anything like that; she didn't seem to be in the mood, and he could take it or leave it, as foreign as that was to him.

"You know what?" Lily warbled, stepping away from him and turning around. "I just thought of what I want us to do today."

"I get a say in that, surely," Gold objected lightly.

"Oh, you'll like this," Lily assured him, circling around to press a paw on his back and clean something off. He had no idea what she was removing with her tongue; probably just an errant smudge of something from their recent crash landing. He had found plenty of small patches of condensed salt on her, apart from the other, more recent contaminants.

"What is it?"

"We are going to go let my best friend in on the fact that you know everything," she replied cryptically.

"And I like that why?" he asked. He was pretty sure she meant Crystal, and he wasn't on good terms with Crystal-

Wait, no, that was before he knew she had been playing him from the start. He felt a bit of grudging respect at that; he hadn't thought she had a deceptive bone in her body. There had to be a vulgar joke there somewhere, he could feel it just out of reach. Him courting her, him being deceptive, wanting to mate with her, her not having a deceptive bone in her body…

"You'll like it because I want to surprise her with it," Lily revealed. "She deserves some cheering up, and finding out you are coming along nicely seems like a good way to do that."

"It does?" He almost didn't object further, thinking she probably had it all figured out and would look down on him for not getting it… But he remembered Pyre's words from the day before, and the admonishment that Lily was not always right. This really seemed like a bad idea.

"Does she often enjoy having what she gave up flaunted in front of her?" he asked diffidently, hedging his bets by making it seem like a casual question, not a serious doubt.

"It would not be like that," Lily said firmly, scratching at something right between his shoulders. He leaned back to let her reach it easier. "She was asking after you, wanting to know whether you were bearable. She is _not_ happy with Claw, and knowing that she did not sacrifice for nothing will make that easier on her."

"But it will still rub in that she did not get me, and we both agree that I am desirable," Gold argued, not letting even a hint of amusement into his voice as that would undermine his argument. "If she is not happy with her situation, why would seeing you even happier than expected make her feel better?"

"It would make _me_ feel better if our places were reversed, to know that my friend was at least not suffering alongside me," Lily objected.

"And Crystal thinks like that?" Gold pressed.

A sharp claw poked between his scales. "Why are you so insistent on this?" Lily asked suspiciously.

Because he was pretty sure she was making a mistake, and Pyre had told him to point out when she was truly wrong, so that she would respect him. "Because I do not think this will work the way you want," he said simply. "She is your friend, and you would know her better than me, but _I_ certainly would not like to end up with some terrible female, and then to have Cedar show up bragging about how great his mate is. _Especially_ if I could have had her but decided to be nice and help him take her instead."

"It would not be bragging…" She had lost her certainty, which Gold took as a good sign. "I think she would be happy for me… And she wanted to see me reform you. We have made a good start at that."

"I have not changed much," he asserted.

"Let's see," Lily rumbled as she resumed licking. "You've shown you can keep your attention on one female and be faithful, you don't try to push me around anymore, you're not obnoxious about mating at every single opportunity, you make me laugh, you _saved my life_ , you met Pyre and didn't make a mess of that whole situation, you agreed to keep our secrets without even really asking for anything in return…"

He squirmed under the ticklish pressure of her tongue on a sensitive part of his wing, near where membrane met the arm. "That is change?"

"Gold, you wanted to try and mate with me, Honey, Pearl, and Crystal on the sly," Lily said bluntly. "You were basically Claw-in-the-making. Now, just a few days later, I feel like you've grown up and become a different person. One who doesn't want that."

"I do not feel any different, even if I have given up on that," he grumbled. She talked like it was such a huge shift when it wasn't even all his doing. He still vaguely liked the idea of sneaking out to Pearl and seducing her, and then going for Pina or Crystal or Honey, and then another female…

But that just didn't seem quite as good as what he had now, and he would spoil this if he tried. He had realized that he liked this too much to risk it, no more. If she said 'yes, go make Pearl happy' he would gladly do it.

Or was that just what he was thinking to reassure himself? Was he on the path to becoming his Sire? First he lost his desire to sleep around, then he decided against controlling her, _then_ he found himself on occasion not really caring about mating… Was the next step just turning into his Sire and letting her take charge without even thinking about it, all the while convincing himself that there were good reasons to do it, that he wanted to do it, that it just wasn't worth the effort or risk to oppose her-

Pyre's instructions again came to mind. Lily would want an equal, a strong male who didn't try to control her but didn't let her take control. That, by definition would make him nothing like his Sire.

Maybe he was just turning into something different. Claw was no role model, and neither were any of the males of the valley, and he didn't know Pyre well enough to be like him if he wanted to. It made sense that he wouldn't know what he was becoming if his only points of reference were people he _didn't_ want to emulate.

"Gold," Lily hummed, licking his haunches and startling him out of his befuddlement. "You went all silent again."

"I was just thinking," he explained. "Maybe I have changed."

"And?"

"I do not know what I am changing into," he admitted. "So I do not feel good about it."

"But I do," Lily hummed, rubbing her nose against his back. "Do you want me to tell you?"

"Go ahead." He didn't know what he was going to hear, but at least he would know what she was aiming for, if she spoke true.

"A strong male," she hummed thoughtfully, rubbing against his scales. "Physically, strong and big and fit. I want to be strong and fit too, but we are talking about you here. Mentally strong too, clever and deceptive, but not in bad ways. Faithful, loving, caring. Sly and irreverent and _Gold,_ because I won't touch your personality or your spirit or your confidence, I like what's there already. There's more, but those are the things I am aiming for most of all."

"I can never live up to that," he complained, touched in spite of his objection. He'd prefer to hear she _already_ thought he was all of those things, of course, but this was a close second.

"You are already starting to," she assured him. "You might be right about Crystal, too."

"I think I am," he agreed. "Approach her some other way. Flaunting me will just make her jealous."

"I will think about it," Lily sighed. "Any other ideas as to what we can do today? Besides the obvious."

"We could go meet _my_ friends," he offered on a whim. They would almost certainly be doing something together, and talk of making people jealous had got him thinking. He would rather enjoy showing Lily around and rubbing it in Cedar's face, and Mist too, she was always looking down on him…

"Who?"

"Cedar, Ash, Root, Danda, Mist, Liona," he recited. "They are all a season-cycle younger, I guess you would not know them?"

"I know their names," Lily mused. "But not really anything about them. That sounds nice, actually. Let's finish getting cleaned up, and then go find them."

"Fair warning," Gold rumbled, feeling the need to ensure Lily was in the right stage of mind, "they might not think too highly of you, so you should show off."

"Show off, you say?" Lily rumbled. "I think I can do that." There was a mischievous edge to her voice that made him want to tremble with anticipation… or dread. He wasn't sure which yet.

O-O-O-O-O

"Still refusing to share your good fortune?" Cedar asked the moment Gold landed on the shore.

"What?" Gold asked, intentionally playing dumb. He had not forgotten Cedar's insistence that he share how mating with Lily was, and his decision to _not_ give Cedar what he wanted hadn't changed. Besides, if he timed this right Cedar would stick his paw in his own mouth…

"Come _on,_ " Cedar whined. "I am not going to stop pestering you until you give me at least one detail. Was she into it, or did you have to do everything?"

"Well, it seems like she might be into something I am going to propose soon," Gold said slowly, speaking loudly so Cedar wouldn't hear the muted thump behind him.

"Yes? What?" Cedar leaned forward, sliding a pawlength in the sand.

"Stepping on your tail," Gold said blandly.

Lily stomped down viciously, revealing her presence with two paws and all of her weight against the midsection of his tail. Cedar yelped, jumped, failed to shift Lily, and as a result slammed back into the sand with a second yelp.

"No asking about mating," Lily growled.

"Or you will get worse," Gold added casually, strolling up to Cedar and putting a paw on his forehead to help hold him down. "So?"

"No asking," Cedar mumbled.

"Good, now let's forget about this," Lily purred, stepping off of his tail and circling around to stand with Gold. "Where is everyone else?"

"Cedar always gets here early," Gold explained, seeing that Cedar wasn't about to speak up. "They will arrive any moment now." He hadn't _told_ anyone that he'd be bringing Lily, but he knew where they met up, and when.

"Liona will be late," Cedar mumbled. "Gold, why did you bring _her_?" He had twisted around and was examining his tail with wide eyes. "She is not part of our group."

"I wanted to meet my mate's friends," Lily supplied helpfully, her voice pleasant. "I hope I am not going to make things awkward."

Gold snorted. She had already failed with at least one person. Not that he minded; Cedar needed to be put in his place, and would hopefully not cause any more problems.

"No, not awkward… You bruised my tail." Cedar huffed and stood, swinging his now somewhat stiffer tail around behind him to test it. "In two places."

"Let those bruises remind you what is and is not polite to ask about me," Lily said happily. "If you need another reminder once they fade, I can give you a few more."

"I do not envy you any more, Gold," Cedar announced.

"You _should_ ," Gold purred. "She is only like this with those who have no right to know all the fun things about her."

"Fun things?"

Gold jumped, surprised, and turned to see Ash and Root walking out of the forest. "What were you doing there?" he demanded.

"Felt like walking," Ash explained. "Mist is-"

"Right behind you!" Mist snarled, leaping out from behind another tree to tackle Ash. "Never do that again!"

Gold knew the signs of a successful prank, but he was surprised to see who had apparently pulled one off. "What did they do this time?" he sighed, acting as if he was not part of the pranking group more often than not. He was not part of this one, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

" _Mud_ ," Mist spat, firmly swatting Ash's head. "I woke up to find my tailfins covered in mud!"

"I surrender," Ash said calmly, covering his head with his paws just in time to block another strike. "Cedar put us up to it."

"Did he?" Mist snarled.

"I did not even know about this," Root objected. "Is this why you wanted to walk in the woods, Ash?"

"Cedar gave me the whole plan," Ash repeated.

Gold turned to look at Cedar, only to find that he was sprinting down the beach, away from them. He wasn't _really_ trying to flee, that would involve flying, but he was putting some distance between himself and Mist.

Lily hummed in amusement. "I guess he really deserved that tail-bruising," she remarked.

"I do not care what bruising he got, when he comes back I am going to give him another," Mist growled. "I hit my Dam with a lump of mud by mistake, and she was _not_ happy."

"How did you manage that?" Root asked, apparently deeming himself safe from Mist's wrath. He eyed Lily curiously, but didn't remark on her presence. Mist was too annoyed to care, and Ash was too busy shielding himself from possible future attacks.

"I woke up, felt a weight, swung my tail up to look, and slapped it all along her side," Mist growled. "I am going to find him, drag him into the forest, and dunk him face-first into the first puddle I find."

"He's getting away," Lily pointed out.

"He will come back, and he wants me to chase him, so I am just going to wait here." Mist stepped off of Ash, favoring him with one last thump from her tail. "Lily, how are you doing today?"

"Good," Lily warbled lightly. "I would ask about you, but you have already said. I would ask Ash, but he is obviously bruised and bemused. Root?"

"Glad to be on the sidelines of this one," Root responded. "Where are Liona and Danda?"

"Late," Gold supplied. "I do not know why, though. Cedar did not say."

"Something about their Dam," Mist offered. "Maybe she is giving them a lecture on choosing mates. I know that was what was happening last time they were both late."

"What is there to lecture on?" Gold asked leisurely. Root and Ash were both paying close attention now, and he couldn't help but poke at them. "How to settle for the inferior ones available to them?"

"How to pick the right one," Mist grunted, giving him an evil look. "Though we both know you profited from other Dams not giving that same lecture."

"Excuse me?" Lily growled.

Mist glanced over at her. "Sorry, you are not used to our bantering," she said, not sounding all that sorry. "Gold knows I did not _really_ mean it, and I certainly meant no offense to you."

Gold snorted; that might have worked on someone else, but Lily was far too observant to fall for that. They both knew that Mist had meant offense to him, at the very least. He had the option of calling her out on it, but instead he kept his mouth shut, more interested in how Lily would retort.

To his surprise, she didn't let on that she had caught the lie. "Oh, I see," Lily hummed pleasantly. "You did not mean to say that I chose poorly, it was just a joke. I understand."

"Yes, exactly," Mist hummed. "Anyway, it is not as if you had a choice in the matter."

The arrival of Liona and Danda, diving down from above, temporarily ended the exchange. Mist turned to greet the two females.

Lily, in the meantime, sidled over to Gold. "She is going to get it," she hummed quietly. "Follow my lead." She bounded over to the two latecomers, not waiting for an answer.

O-O-O-O-O

Introductions had been made, and Lily had remained pleasant to all, though she was obviously plotting. The group lazed on the tideline, the males occasionally roughhousing in the surf, and conversations were had.

Throughout it all, Gold watched for Lily's revenge, and saw nothing to indicate what it might be. He couldn't even tell if _she_ had a plan. She didn't lead the conversations anywhere, she didn't strike at Mist through words or insinuations, she didn't give her game away in the slightest.

Still, he stuck close to her and kept an ear out for her words, even as he lazed away the afternoon on his back in the sand, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Then something caught his attention. Mist had gone out to dunk Cedar in the tide, and the other males were all helping her, much to Cedar's dismay. Lily, Liona, and Danda had stayed back, within earshot of him. Liona and Danda probably assumed he was asleep, though he knew Lily well enough to know that she wouldn't assume the same, having told him she was plotting something earlier.

"Tell me," Lily hummed idly, speaking to Liona and Danda, "how are you two and Mist deciding who gets which male?"

Danda groaned loudly. "Not this again, our Dam _just_ got done lecturing us about being kind to each other and choosing different males."

"She would not have to lecture if you would pick one," Liona said quietly.

"You are one to talk," Danda scoffed. "You say you know who you want, but you will not say who until I do."

"You are not picking the same male, obviously," Lily hummed. "Have you found out who Mist is leaning toward?"

"That is easy," Liona murmured. "She is going for Ash. Cedar aggravates her, and she does not like Root's Dam or how attached to her he is."

"Liona wants Root, obviously," Danda snorted. "She just will not admit it."

"Not necessarily," Liona huffed.

Lily hummed in a way Gold knew usually meant she was planning something. "Well, whatever you decide, you should make it known sooner rather than later. The way I see it, Mist might pick someone one of you wants. Get in the prior claim."

Gold held in an evil purr. This sounded like the beginning of a ploy against Mist, though he didn't know where Lily was going to lead it, aside from maybe consigning Mist to last pick of the males. That seemed like it would backfire, since she could just compete with Liona or Danda for whoever they picked, and that would lead to _someone_ ending up with Claw. He couldn't see Lily voluntarily leading anyone to that particular outcome, so obviously he was missing something.

One of the females stood and shook herself. Gold was guessing Danda, since Liona would have walked away and avoided showering everyone else in sand… and Lily probably would have tried to shake as much as possible onto him specifically.

"I am going to go cool off," Danda announced, confirming his guess. Neither female offered to go with her.

The moment she was gone, Lily purred. "It's Cedar, isn't it?" she said in a low voice.

"Maybe," Liona murmured sadly. "Maybe not. He is probably going to pester Mist into picking him, he probably plays pranks on her all the time for a reason."

"That reason being that you obviously wouldn't like it, and Danda would bite him for real," Lily retorted. "If you like him, go for it."

"That is not what I do," Liona said with a whine. "And if I do, Danda will try for him too."

"I see…" Lily hummed thoughtfully. "If Cedar began pranking Danda non-stop to annoy her, _and_ at the same time courting you, would you like that?"

"Yes," Liona admitted.

"Okay, then," Lily said. "If that happens, go with it." She made a suggestion sound like a promise without actually promising anything, a trick Gold resolved to learn as soon as he could. He could remember both Lily and Crystal using that same technique on _him_ to great effect, so it was definitely worth picking up for himself.

O-O-O-O-O

"So much for making her regret it," Gold complained as they flew back to their rock that evening. "You did not do anything."

Lily snorted. "I knew you would say that," she said smugly. "I am just getting started. Now, I'm going to need you to do something for me tonight."

"Does it involve my tongue in any way?" Gold asked cheekily. "Because I had plans of my own…"

"You can do that once you get back," Lily said a little too quickly, "but first I need you to catch up to Cedar and convince him to prank Danda, but not Liona. Give him some ideas if he needs them."

"Really?" Gold asked. "What is the plan here? Obviously, you are going to set Cedar up with Liona, but how does that spite Mist?"

"That's just part one," Lily snorted. "Go quickly, you want to catch Cedar before he goes home."

Gold huffed and banked, turning toward where Cedar lived. He would play along; if nothing else, just seeing the results of Cedar pranking Danda would be worth the effort getting him started was undoubtedly going to take.

O-O-O-O-O

When he and Lily found the group the next day, three things had changed. Danda was fuming mad, Cedar was avoiding her, and Liona was eyeing Cedar in disbelief.

"Did you do this?" Liona hissed, approaching Lily the moment she set down. Gold pretended he wasn't listening, but stuck close.

"Maybe," Lily said vaguely. "Maybe Gold helped."

"Maybe Cedar was easy to convince," Gold added. He didn't know Lily's whole plan, but since it probably involved doing what she had promised, he knew how to help. "It was not hard to set him against Danda."

"And… the other thing?" Liona asked.

"I've got that covered," Lily hummed. "But you should do a little something to make sure he knows you would like his attention."

"I am all ears," Liona said fervently, leaning in to listen.

Gold saw Ash looking over, and took that as his cue to go run interference. He bounded over and swatted a pawful of sand in the other male's face, startling him.

"Hey!" Ash barked, blinking rapidly as he dug his paws into the sand. "You will regret that!"

"Nah," Gold smirked, tossing another pawful of sand at his side. "I think you will." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lily explaining something to Liona, and knew that he was helping. He couldn't wait to see how this would all come around to bite Mist.

O-O-O-O-O

By midday, Lily's work with Liona was bearing fish. Gold didn't know how she had convinced the shy female to share a fish with Cedar, but it was happening right in front of his eyes. Judging by the confused stare Liona was getting from her sister and Mist, he wasn't the only one amazed.

"Here you go, but only if you tell me how you did that," Gold said, dropping a fish just out of reach. Lily rolled her eyes at him and stuck a paw out to take it, but he pulled it away.

"It wasn't hard," Lily said shortly. "She just needed someone to tell her she was pretty and clever and build her confidence up a bit. It is not like anyone else here was doing that before. Danda and Mist see her as a possible rival, not someone to build up."

He nodded, judging that sufficient, and flicked the fish at her. He hadn't bothered pursuing any of the females from this season-cycle too thoroughly, choosing instead to focus more on the ones who had a chance of being his mate, but he had held vague intentions of moving on to them at some point. That was about how he would have approached Liona… though for him, it would have taken moon-cycles of praise to get through her suspicion.

"I need to work on looking more innocent," he murmured.

"Good luck, given you built yourself a reputation as anything but," Lily snorted. "You're never going to look innocent to anyone that knows you."

"You would know all about my innocence," Gold purred, wishing he had thought of a better way to phrase it. There was probably a more suggestive way to use the setup she had unwillingly provided him with, but he hadn't thought of any.

Lily shook her head and licked her lips. "Oh, I do," she said shamelessly. "Now, on that same subject-"

"We could go to the ledges," he said smoothly. "It is not like we have to stick around."

"Later," Lily laughed. "Rather, I want you to go use your dirty mind to put some thoughts in Ash's head about Danda. I'm sure you have some stored up."

Gold once again found himself on the back paw, his attitude toward females accepted and thrown back in his face as a reason to make him do something he would rather not. He had to admire how easily it had been done, even as he tried to think of a good retort that would get him out of doing her bidding.

"I thought you wanted me not to have those thoughts," he huffed, acting offended.

"Which is why I want you to give them to Ash," Lily retorted without even the slightest pause.

"Oh, fine," he huffed. "But I get to call the shots tonight." He was not nearly as opposed to this as he pretended; it would be entertaining to twist Ash's mind, and something he'd never done before. But if he could profit from it too, he definitely would.

"I was hoping you would anyway," Lily hummed, brushing her tail along his side. "Now get going."

Gold hopped to his paws and made his way to Ash, willing himself to calm down. Visible excitement would not really help him in this, and would be embarrassing besides. Now, if he could get _Ash_ to that level of interest, he would consider it a victory…

Ash was eating alone, staring in confusion at Liona and Cedar. "I do not understand," he rumbled as Gold approached.

"Females are fickle creatures," Gold said knowingly. Ash saw him as a genius in such matters, which was a largely accurate assumption, and he fully intended to use it now. "The moment she saw he did not like Danda, she leaped on him."

"He does not like Danda?" Ash rumbled, looking over at him with wide eyes.

"No, that was what the prank told everyone," Gold said calmly. "He and Liona are all but paired."

"Lucky," Ash murmured.

"Yes. Sort of." Gold shook his head. "You are the lucky one. He settled for Liona, not Danda."

"Liona is pretty," Ash said simply.

"Danda is better," Gold claimed. He put a wing on Ash's head and tilted it to look at Danda, who had her back to them, laying further down the shore. "She is sleek, and fit, and her wings have that nice curve to them that Liona does not have. And look at those hips..."

"Yes…"

"Mist is snippy, and Liona is shy," Gold said dismissively. "They would not be any fun on the ledges. Danda, though? She would be great." He felt vaguely bad for saying all of this, and he didn't quite understand why, so he discarded the more explicit praise he might have offered Danda, and jumped right to the end. "Chase her, Ash, because someone will and you want her more than Root does."

"I do," Ash grumbled, shifting uncomfortably on his paws.

Gold purred smugly. There it was. He had succeeded. Hopefully, Lily would be setting Danda up to be receptive to Ash before he did anything too obvious-

Ash stood, panted a bit, and walked away, heading straight for Danda. Gold politely averted his eyes before he could see whether Ash's interest was visible; he had seen plenty such things, spying on mated couples on the ledges, but that didn't mean he wanted to look.

In looking away, he caught Lily's eye. She flicked her ears at Ash and glared.

He purred and shrugged his wing shoulders in response, pretending it was all part of the plan to rile Ash up so much that he took immediate action. If it all went bad, he could claim he thought Lily had meant for it to happen.

"I will share fish with you tomorrow," Ash said breathlessly once he was close to Danda. "And every day."

Danda looked over her shoulder and saw him. Her eyes narrowed. "Why?" she huffed.

"Because you are attractive and perfect and I want you," he said without any tact at all.

Danda's eyes widened. She looked from him, to Mist, and then to Liona, who wasn't paying them any attention. "Really?"

"Really," Ash repeated, nudging her side. "Very much."

"I can _see_ that," she rumbled, standing and putting a little distance between them. "Calm down."

"I can do that," Ash huffed.

"Then you can bring me fish," Danda conceded. She seemed flattered in spite of herself.

Gold cast another smug look at Lily, seeing that Ash had managed to turn base desire into an effective little speech. This was his success, even if it was her plan…

And he could tell from the way she huffed and turned away that she would do her best to downplay it later. He looked forward to that; it would be an interesting argument, with him having the advantage for once.

O-O-O-O-O

"That saves a lot of time," Lily said as they flew away a little while before sunset. "Good work."

"No complaining about how I upset your plan?" he asked, almost disappointed.

"Well, you _did_ , but it worked out so why do I care?" Lily said pragmatically. "Now I do not have to do much except make sure Danda does not scare him off the first time she has to tell him no. You got him _too_ interested."

"I do not do things halfway," he said smugly.

"No, and that makes me wonder what you said to him," Lily admitted.

"Nothing that could hold up to me praising _you_ ," he hummed seductively. "Does my good work mean you would be-"

"Yes, we're going to the ledges," Lily interrupted with a sultry purr. "And-"

"Lily!"

Gold looked back long enough to confirm that Mist was the one calling out to them, and huffed in annoyance. "Get rid of her quickly," he requested. She was delaying something much more important to him.

"Right here," Lily huffed, falling back to meet Mist. Gold followed, only mildly interested in what she would have to say.

"What are you playing at?" Mist demanded. "I am not stupid, I saw you talking to Liona, and then Gold with Ash."

"What am I doing?" Lily asked in an innocent voice that would have gotten Gold laughed at had he ever tried to use it. "I am just helping my new friends work things out, that is all. I may not be able to choose my own mate, but they had choices."

"And now I am without a choice in the matter!" Mist complained. "Root annoys me!"

"I am sure you will do just fine with him, once you put some effort in," Lily said coldly. "Maybe I should be snarky about your choice of mate afterward, or maybe I could admit that you didn't have much of a choice."

Mist's mouth fell open, and a moment later she spluttered, learning once more why fledglings were taught to fly with their mouths closed. Gold laughed loudly, and she turned to glare at him before addressing Lily again.

"This is about _that_?" she demanded. "That was-"

"Rude and insulting," Lily interjected, talking over her. "So when I saw some people in need of help, I decided I would do them first, not you. Liona and Danda are getting the males that fit them best, and you are getting the one left over. Sorry if your rudeness made you last in my priorities, but someone had to be and you all but asked for it."

Mist was struck speechless by that. Gold admired the way Lily had made her motives partially altruistic, to the point where even he couldn't say whether she actually meant it like that. On the one paw, she had told him she was getting even long before beginning to arrange pairings with the others. On the other paw, the pairings she had made _were_ good ones regardless of how they happened to leave Mist with someone she didn't like. In a group of three males and three females, _someone_ was bound to not get their first choice.

"I'll help you with Root," Lily offered, seemingly sincere. "You might need it, and I would like to see you two happy together."

"And I will probably need that help if I want to not be miserable," Mist murmured disbelievingly. "I cannot even complain, because my friends are all happy, and you did nothing wrong. You just helped them first."

"She learns her trickery from a smart, clever male," Gold said, proudly, happily phrasing it so that Lily could not object without revealing Pyre's existence.

"I guess you two are good for each other after all," Mist said forlornly. "If I do need your help dealing with him?"

"I'll give it," Lily assured her.

"Thank you," Mist muttered, diving to leave the conversation.

Gold watched her go, turning over Lily's completed plan in his mind. It was clever and cruel, and even better, totally impossible to complain about, as Mist had realized. "That was awesome," he admitted.

"It doesn't feel all that awesome right now," Lily sighed. "But I don't see what I would have done differently even if I was not out to spite her."

"Which is what makes it awesome, you cannot get in trouble for it." Gold flew under her and bumped his head on her stomach. "Now, in order to cheer you up…"

"The ledges," Lily agreed, speeding ahead. Gold followed, laughing eagerly.

_**Author's Note** _ **: Wow, this chapter was a struggle for no obvious reason. I actually wrote the next one before this, I was so stuck on nothing in particular. Even having finished it, I don't know what was holding me back.**


	24. Gold - Persuasive (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: It's chapter 5 of Gold's mini-saga, and about time to address the dragon in the valley, so to speak…**

* * *

Gold walked through the valley, alone with his thoughts. It was night, and Lily was not yet home.

He wasn't worried; she had said she would be with Pyre and might not be back before dusk, and he trusted her. Even if he did not, he trusted her sneakiness to ensure she picked a far less checkable excuse when she wanted to deceive him, and thus he could be sure that in this instance she was being truthful.

But he _did_ trust her, alibi aside. It was hard not to. The only reason she'd hide something from him was if she was seeing another male, and he'd not caught so much as the slightest hint of her caring for any other. So far as he knew, the only male friends she had were Pyre and Granite, and those two were both her family. One was dead, on top of that.

He padded past a sleeping family atop a rock, skirting to the side to avoid a dangling tail, and kept walking, burning time with one eye on the sky. It was a nice night and he had nothing better to do. No need to chase females, no parents to avoid… Life was good, as odd as that would have seemed to the him of a moon-cycle past.

He was so content, he almost ignored the noises of argument, but his recently dormant habit of poking his nose where it didn't belong resurged as the argument abruptly stopped, voices dropping to a hoarse duo of whispers. _Someone_ didn't want to be overheard.

The noises had come from his right, and as he casually turned to circle around in that general direction, he further pinpointed the location. With most of the families around him slumbering quietly, it wasn't hard to hear them.

A mated pair, alone upon a somewhat large rock-

No, not alone, he noticed. There was a camouflaged light wing perched in the empty space, just barely visible if he looked carefully. Now he was very intrigued.

As he snuck closer, approaching from behind the three of them, he began to make out words.

"We will not listen to this kind of talk, whoever you are," one of the visible light wings objected, her voice angry and scared. "We are loyal."

"To a monster," the camouflaged one said, speaking with a low growl that made their voice sound odd and unearthly. People didn't speak like that, not when they weren't angry. The inflection and tone didn't match, something Gold would never have noticed had Pyre and Lily not waxed eloquent about how to manipulate one's voice a few days ago.

In this case, the reason behind that oddness was obvious; whoever they were, they were trying to hide their identity. It was working, too. He couldn't even decide whether they were a he or she.

"We will tell Claw someone came to us and said these things," the male growled. "I must. Go away before I decide to attack and hold you down so he can catch you here and now."

"Maybe you should," the camouflaged dragon laughed bitterly. "How he dealt with me might shake you out of your content stupor. He is a tyrant and an abusive waste of space." And with that, they leaped into the air.

Gold growled to himself and leaped too, startling the two light wings as he threw away stealth in favor of pursuit. He _had_ to know, and he had the perfect excuse for chasing them. Anyone would be expected to, at least by Claw.

But it wouldn't do to actually _catch_ him or her, not with others watching, so he quickly flamed himself. Following them was hard enough when they were right in front of him; everybody else would quickly lose track of them.

Of course, doing so had another consequence. The blurry, indistinct form doubled back and then dove, trying to get away from him. The light wing now knew someone was following, and was trying to lose him.

He wouldn't be evaded so easily; at this point, it was a matter of pride as much as curiosity that kept him behind them, straining his wings and doubling back repeatedly, keeping the blur in his line of sight. So long as he did not look away, did not totally lose the blur, he could follow.

They flew in their awkward, desperate dance for a little while, gradually gaining height and leaving the valley behind. He followed from above whenever possible, always angling to drop onto them if they made a wrong move, keeping them from going up above him and disappearing in the clouds.

Dogged stubbornness and pride kept him chasing long after a lesser male would have gotten bored and given up, and cleverness kept him on their tail. Eventually, the not-so-elusive dragon slowed, flapping sluggishly in defeat.

"The shore looks nice," he said loudly, indicating where he wanted his all but captured prey to land. They both knew he _could_ keep following until the camouflage wore off, and anyone with a bit of cunning in them would land, discuss terms, and try to talk him out of revealing who they were before he had any proof.

Had he run into this sort of thing in the past, he would be hoping desperately that the one he had caught was female and willing to cozy up to him in exchange for leniency. Now, he was intrigued in a far more intellectual way, lacking the motivation to think about that sort of thing when he didn't want to make the trade taking another female would result in.

The camouflaged light wing landed heavily, scattering sand on the dune as they hit. Gold almost lost them in the gritty cloud, and pounced the moment he caught a glimpse of blurry air-

A firm paw kicked his neck, and he went sprawling. He struck out with his tail and wrapped around something solid just as it lifted off the ground, and a feminine grunt accompanied another hard impact, implying he had just tripped whoever he was scuffling with.

Not one to pass up on an advantage, he wheeled around and kicked sand at the blur scrambling to her feet, blinding her and giving depth to what he could see, the individual grains rolling and catching between scales. He promptly pounced and drove the female's head to the ground, wrapping his tail around one of her back paws just in case, and found grip on her frills with his claws.

"Let me go!" she hissed in a deep voice, still trying to disguise herself.

He snorted, sniffed at the head under his paws, and had his answer, as surprising as it was. "So, Crystal," he said conversationally. "Nice night for a flight."

"Ugh," Crystal groaned, falling limp. "Fine, you got me."

"I certainly did," he said proudly.

"And we both know if I run, you will just blab about this, so we both know I am not going to try," Crystal continued, the loathing heavy in her voice, smothering his pride with her disdain. "So let me go."

"Why?" he snorted. He might not be interested in mating with other females, but Lily could not fault him for holding down a potentially dangerous-

Wait, no, she would hear of this given who he was currently pinning, and while he didn't fear her annoyance with him, he didn't want to have to explain himself either, not when her trust in him was so precious and probably hard to win back. He let go of Crystal's frills and stepped away, allowing her to stand and shake herself off.

"Of all the light wings in this pack," Crystal griped, pawing at the sand, "it had to be you. I was not doing anything wrong."

"You are just trying to make me think I have no bargaining power," he said accusingly. "I know very well what you were doing, I heard the tail-end of it." She had been talking about a monster and, if he had to guess, speaking ill of Claw. That, given what he had recently learned from Lily, might result in a very painful punishment, maybe even death if Claw found out.

Crystal's scales began to shimmer, and in moments she was visible, looking extremely put out. " _Great_ ," she snarled, looking down at her now visible paws, "because this was not humiliating enough. What do you want?"

"What do I want?" He wasn't sure, too busy asking himself another, more philosophical question. Where was this whole situation two moon-cycles ago? His younger self had _dreamed_ of situations very much like this, and it seemed the height of cruel irony to only stumble into one after he had decided against such a thing, and with his mate's best friend, no less. If only he could have run into this first, and then become Lily's mate!

"Stop playing stupid, we both know what you are like," Crystal snarled. "And _I_ know what I am avoiding. Just say it, swear to never reveal it was me, and get it over with."

"You are desperate to not be told on," he mused, thinking quickly. She was Lily's friend, and he had no intention of actually ratting her out, so at some point this whole encounter would make its way to Lily's ears, from Crystal's point of view.

Well, if he could not have what she expected him to want, then he could at least have fun with the situation. "Okay... " He flicked his ears and made a show of rearranging his paws. "Do what I say, and as far as anyone else knows, I lost the mystery male." He would even lie about the voice to divert suspicion.

"Just get on with it!" she snarled.

"Okay, first, hop on two paws," he commanded.

Crystal stared at him for a dozen heartbeats, motionless, her jaw slack and her eyes suspicious.

"Well?" he waved his paw, then realized he was still camouflaged. That was helpful, actually; she wouldn't see the stupid grin he could feel spreading across his face.

She quickly lifted her front paws all of a paw length off the sand, hopped forward once, and glared at him.

"Next," he said, not pressing her on her lack of compliance, "flap your wings and wiggle your ears at the same time."

"You are the most ridiculous, perverted light wing in this entire pack," she said scathingly.

"Do it," he purred smugly.

"Fine!" She wiggled her ears and tried to flap, only to find that she couldn't do them both at the same time. Her wings flapped, and her ears fell flat, and when she focused on wiggling them, her wings faltered.

Gold let her struggle with that for a few moments; it was surprisingly difficult, one of those weird little things one never noticed except by accident.

"Okay," he called out. "That is good."

"You are _strange_ ," Crystal griped. "Just get it over with!"

"Okay," Gold drawled, humming eagerly. "Roll onto your back."

"Make it quick and do not expect to ever get this again, unfaithful sneak," Crystal snarled, reluctantly rolling onto her back.

Gold eyed her speculatively, but only for a brief moment. She had nothing Lily did not possess, though she was more toned-

And he didn't care, far more interested in the joke he was playing on her. He could go to Lily for mating. "Now swipe your wings in the sand to make a backprint like a fledgling."

"You are a sick, depraved creep," Crystal growled, doing as told.

Gold was impressed. Not with the sand-print; he had made better himself, and she was thrashing too violently to leave any clear shapes behind. No, he was impressed by how afraid she was of Claw's punishment, to go this far without more than acerbic insults. Whatever she thought Claw would do to her was worse than this humiliation, and the unwanted mating she assumed was imminent.

He would like to think she was not that repulsed by him and thus not all that opposed to mating with him, but it was more likely Claw was just _that_ bad. He felt a twinge of guilt for messing with her like this. "You can get up," he said. "That was all I wanted. Claw will hear that a male light wing lost me in the chase."

Crystal scrambled to her paws without hesitation, but her eyes were wide and wild, a clear indicator of the type of shock that left one mentally scrambling to make sense of the world. He was familiar with the feeling, having experienced a similar disorientation recently.

"Try not to get caught next time," he advised. "Or have someone around to watch your back."

"Why?" Crystal asked.

"Because I do not really want you," Gold said, "and because it was funny to watch you do what I said." It would have been funnier if she hadn't spit vile insults at him with every new request, but that was too much to ask for. He was lucky she hadn't decided he was easier silenced by force than compliance.

"Funny?" she growled, baring her teeth at him.

"Embarrassing, too," he confirmed, casually flicking his wings in preparation for the possibility of a hasty departure, just in case she tried to bite him. He didn't want to bleed for this little joke.

"I despise you," Crystal huffed. "You really are not going to tell?"

"I am Lily's mate," he reminded her. "We talk. I cannot say I disagree with what you are doing, you just have to be better at not getting caught."

"I guess she really did fix you," Crystal said bitterly. "I hope she is happy. She has not so much as given me advice on how to fight back against the male who _killed my mate_ since you came into the picture."

"She has been busy learning how awesome I am," Gold said, falling back on familiar, empty boasting. He hadn't been expecting such a bitter complaint _not_ directed at him so much as Lily. Lily was great, he was the one she hated.

"And while she is learning, I am suffering and lacking someone to watch my back," Crystal growled. "Tell her that, when you tell her of my humiliation." She reared back, flamed herself, and took off, displacing the sand with a heavy beat of her wings.

O-O-O-O-O

"So, how was your night?" Lily asked as he landed on their rock. She rolled to her side and lifted a wing, and he happily lay next to her, his side against her stomach.

"Interesting," he rumbled. If he were a little less tired, he'd be contemplating asking her to the ledges, or risking something clandestine right here in the middle of the valley, but the chase, while invigorating, had left him with sore wings and a desire to sleep that just barely outweighed his other desires. She would still be here in the morning, and far more likely to agree to having fun then anyway.

"How so?" she pressed, rubbing her chin against his nose.

"Well, I almost caught a rabble-rouser, so if Claw comes calling that is why," he said lazily.

"Claw?" Lily barked. "What? What do you mean, a rabble-rouser?"

"Keep it down!" Gold said, using his paw to pull her face under his chin and hold her mouth shut for a moment, much to her annoyance. "If anyone asks," he whispered, "I did not catch them, but I did. Crystal was stirring up trouble and speaking against Claw."

Lily yanked her head out from under him and gave him an evil stare. "You'll pay for that later," she promised.

"I look forward to it. The mystery troublemaker was camouflaged, but I kept them in my sights for a while. Sadly, they escaped. I did _not_ manage to force them down to the shore and extort some amusing things from them in exchange for my silence."

"What amusing things would you have had he or she do?" Lily asked innocently. "You know, if you had caught them, which you didn't."

"Hop on two paws, flap their wings and shake their ears, make wing outlines in the sand," he recounted. "Stuff like that."

"You'd be letting them off lightly," Lily murmured seriously. "Would you ask them what in the world they were thinking?"

"I would, but they would just be mad about not having backup," Gold relayed solemnly. "They might think you kind of abandoned them for me, though why they would blame you of all people escapes me."

"You tend to tell stories about me," Lily sighed. She _sounded_ amused, as befitting a stupid little hypothetical he was telling, but her eyes were sad. "Have I really?"

"I have no idea, given I was not around to hear what you and she were planning to get up to," Gold said, fumbling his way through phrasing it as a part of their cover story. That was getting more cumbersome the more they used it, but at least it was a good protection against possible eavesdroppers.

"I haven't done anything toward that goal since choosing you to get away from him," Lily sighed. "I feel awful. She must think I left her to fend for herself, that I don't care since he's not directly threatening me anymore."

"Going off the topic of hypotheticals," Gold warned.

"She would be right," Lily said sadly. "I let myself forget about it."

"Well, now you remember," Gold offered. "So you can fix it." He would rather she not risk anything, but that just wasn't an option, not when Crystal was out there agitating and bemoaning her lack of accomplices. Things were already in motion.

"I can try," Lily murmured. She shifted, pulling him closer, and closed her eyes.

Gold wished he had brought Crystal's escapades and message up some other time; he didn't like thinking about his mate going to sleep sad. Now that he had said it, all he could do was hold her close and hope she would wake with a more positive outlook on things.

O-O-O-O-O

"Wake up!"

Gold murmured something nonsensical and clung to Lily tighter, clutching her chest. He was an adult now, he did not have to listen when his Sire said to get up early, definitely not when he was holding his mate…

A rough paw kicked at his back, and he winced, clutching her tighter. His Sire never kicked him-

Gold flicked his eyes open, surprise replacing the haze of deep sleep, and he craned his neck to see the kicker.

Another paw knocked his muzzle back, and he tasted blood.

"Get up, now," Claw demanded irritably. Gold could barely see him, the rising sun was a halo behind his head.

But pain was an efficient way to cast aside the haze of sleep, and alarm an even better one. He let go of Lily, stood, and instinctively stuck a wing out over her. He knew Claw's tendency for violence – he had just _felt_ his tendency for violence, at that – and more importantly, he knew Claw had no trouble striking innocent bystanders.

"Yes, alpha?" he asked respectfully, bowing his head while still keeping a wing out over his mate, who was stirring even now. Luckily for her, she had only Claw's impatient barking, not his paw to the ribs and nose. Blood dripped out of Gold's mouth, a little trickle making him even more uncomfortable.

"I was told you chased off a _traitor_ last night," Claw growled, glaring at Gold. "Did they get away?"

"He gave me the slip over the forest, yes," Gold admitted, casually throwing out the wrong gender, as he had promised Crystal. "I kept on him as long as I could, but it was no use."

"What were they doing, and why were you around to chase them?" Claw asked suspiciously.

"I was taking a nighttime walk before coming home to sleep," Gold said. He could feel Lily tensing under his wing, and suspected she knew exactly what was going on, but didn't want to get involved unless she had to.

Gold was surprised by how protective it made him feel, knowing what Claw had done and knowing Lily, strong and confident Lily, would rather let him handle it if he could. He pushed that confidence into sounding sincere as he continued his explanation. "All I really heard were some vague threats from both sides, angry voices. Then a camouflaged light wing flew up right in front of me, and I figured I should probably find out who it was making people angry in the middle of the night."

"You chased them out of the valley, but lost them over the forest?" Claw snarled. His eyes flicked to Gold's outstretched wing, and he snarled again.

"Yes, I was lucky to even follow them that far," Gold confirmed.

"Next time," Claw growled, "try harder. Do you know anything else about them?"

"I thought they were a male, based on their gravelly voice and speed at flying upward," Gold offered. "No clue who it was, though."

"And Lily?" Claw asked. "What does she think?" He motioned for Gold to move his wing…

But Gold could see the dark interest in Claw's eyes, now that he knew what to look for. "She is still asleep," he lied, not moving his wing. "But she would not have anything to add, she was at home when it happened."

"There is no way she slept through this whole talk," Claw said scathingly.

"She is a heavy sleeper?" Gold offered.

Claw snorted and lashed out at the leading edge of his wing. Gold flinched, but held steady, taking the shallow gash across the leading edge.

"Idiot, move your stupid wing," Claw snarled, unrepepentant. "Now."

"Yes, alpha," Gold conceded, sure that Lily would not want him to bleed for her sake, not more than that. Another strike might tear his wing membrane; the first one would have if Claw had struck a paw lower.

He pulled his wing back in with reluctance, and looked at Lily apologetically… Only to find her sprawled out on the rock, just as she had been before, asleep to any who looked.

"Wake up!" Claw roared irritably.

Lily shifted in her sleep, cast a paw out to clutch Gold's hind leg, and fell still again, presumably unbothered by the roar. Gold might have believed the act if he hadn't felt her stiffening beneath his wing previously.

"She was very tired last night," Gold offered, seeking to placate Claw in any way he could, and maybe make clear his claim to his mate at the same time. "You know how it is, I came home a hero and we made a late trip to the ledges."

"I want her awake," Claw snarled.

"Maybe later?" Gold offered. "She once rolled over onto me while we slept, and I had to lie there until she woke up. She cannot be woken by noise or impact, I would know."

"That is… pitiful." Claw turned away, growled, and snarled at nothing. "Next time, catch the traitor."

"Yes, alpha," Gold said, scarcely believing that Claw was giving up. He was sure not to let any of that disbelief into his voice, though. He had no desire to incur Claw's wrath again.

Claw departed in a flurry of flapping and frustration Gold could almost _smell_ , it was so potent. He shivered, glad to be done with that. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, and he wanted to get back to sleep…

So long as Lily was okay. "That was close," he hissed.

"Don't talk to me," Lily hissed back, not moving a muscle. "Lie down, act like I am asleep."

"We do not want to be told on," Gold murmured, understanding her reasoning. Their closest neighbors were distant and asleep, but he couldn't be sure anything they did would go unnoticed, and he _had_ lied quite blatantly to the alpha.

He lay down, shifted his wing back and winced at the cut throbbing on its outside, and threaded his left paws under Lily, while draping his right over. His nose went to the crook of her neck, and all was well.

"Thank you," Lily murmured. He could feel her neck and chest vibrating as she spoke, and her words went into him as much as they went to his ears. "So much. Waking up to that…"

"Not fun," he agreed. "Still, it ended well. He bought it." Claw thought it was a male stirring up trouble, but Gold had not directly lied about it. He had only said he _thought_ it was a male, and given two plausible reasons. Crystal _had_ used a deep, gravelling voice specifically to hide her gender, and she _did_ have an impressive strength when it came to rapidly ascending, the sort of strength males tended to have thanks to generally larger shoulders.

"I can't believe I stopped working against him for even a moment," Lily murmured.

"I am distracting," Gold asserted, licking her neck.

"Yes… you are." Lily purred quietly. "That gives me an idea."

O-O-O-O-O

"They are there," Gold said, motioning down with his head.

"Perfect," Lily hummed. "Good work. Game on."

Gold didn't know what having an accomplice felt like, but he knew he was about to get a good idea of what _being_ one was like. They began their descent together.

"Remember, be obnoxious, make me look good," Lily hissed. "Then-"

"I know," Gold snorted. "We are going to switch sides with the next one?"

"If this does not work well," Lily said. Gold noticed that she hadn't confirmed they would be switching roles for sure, and could see the inevitable 'but it worked so we should keep doing it' argument coming for later.

He didn't know whether he would _want_ to switch later, though, so he held that thought to himself and didn't call her out on it. If she was more comfortable taking the anti-Claw slant to their upcoming trickery, he was happy to let her have it. It fit her better than it would him, and this was all about appearances.

They separated as they descended, landing on either side of the pond. Gold took a long drink, washing out the taste of blood from his mouth, and licked his wing, covering the gash with a fresh coat of spit. He was waiting, though it wouldn't look like it. Lily, on the other side of the pond, was engaging a mated pair. The one he had pointed out for her.

Gold was not sure whether this was going to work the way Lily wanted it to, but the whole point of the plan was to do something without _seeming_ to be doing anything at all, so if it failed no harm was done, and it might still rid Lily of her lingering guilt. Said guilt burdened her, and he didn't like seeing his mate burdened.

It had also killed any enthusiasm she had for a trip to the ledges, so he had several personal grudges against said guilt, and wanted it gone as quickly as possible. His mate should be happy and carefree, as she deserved to be.

Lily engaged the mated pair in conversation, and Gold saw his cue. He began walking around the pond, quickly closing in on them.

"Here he is now," Lily said, announcing his presence once he was close enough.

The male immediately turned to look at him. "Thank you for helping out," he said.

"Doing everything, you mean," Gold snorted. "You did not even try to catch him."

"We told Claw afterward," the male growled. "That is something."

"That's more than enough, if they were doing nothing but talking," Lily said, casting Gold a glare. "It is not as if that is against the pack's rules."

"When it is about the alpha it certainly is," Gold retorted. "They should have pounced, held the traitor down, and sent someone for Claw!" Saying as much carried a small risk that it would really happen if there was a next time, but it was a common-sense measure Crystal _really_ should have a way to avoid anyway. If she didn't then that was her own fault.

"We are allowed to speak our minds," Lily said coldly.

"Not when it is the alpha. Only praise of him is ever acceptable." Gold looked to the male. "Back me up on this. We are not allowed to say anything about Claw unless it is positive."

"That's stupid," Lily shot back, completely overriding whatever the male's response would have been. Both male and female of the mated pair turned their heads to look at Lily. "Claw sometimes sleep late. Is me saying that against our pack's rules? It is not a positive thing."

"Yes," Gold said in his most pompous, self-righteous voice, the one he usually reserved for annoying his friends. They knew it was a joke, but these light wings wouldn't.

"I think it is reasonable to be able to say things other than praise," the female interjected.

"Well, it is not," Gold snorted. "Your mate swore to follow Claw, and that means being his paws and mouth and whatever else. Nothing he would not like is allowed."

"Wait, no, that is not right," the male objected. "I only swore to follow him and never fight him. What did _you_ swear?"

"That, but clearly it means more than just those two things," Gold said vehemently, lashing his tail. "I mean, what does following and never fighting _really_ mean? If someone can be a traitor for just _speaking_ against Claw, then obviously nobody is allowed to say anything bad about him."

"That's not what any of the males swore," Lily growled.

"Well, it is what he is saying," Gold retorted, holding in an amused purr. He hadn't been entirely sure about this plan going in, but it was working perfectly. Everyone was against him now, and he represented Claw's side of things… badly, and extremely. Just as intended.

"It is not what I swore," the male grumbled. "I did not give away my right to speak."

"No, you did not, and I gave away nothing," the male's mate added, glaring at Gold. "You are doing a terrible job of proving the light wing you chased last night _wrong_."

"I do not have to, they _are_ because Claw is perfect and everything he does is perfect," Gold enthused, wondering if he was going too far. He thought he was convincing enough to hide how insincere he was, but it was a crazy position to hold.

"Ugh, this again," Lily growled. "Nobody is perfect, Gold. Not you, not me, not Claw."

"Well, show me his flaws," Gold retorted. "If he had any, people would have pointed them out by now."

"But you just said we were not allowed to talk about them," the male interrupted, sounding triumphant.

"I did, and you are not," Gold snorted.

"But that makes no sense," the female growled.

"It does not have to make sense, Claw is alpha," Gold laughed. "Everything he does is right. If it was not, we would have gotten rid of him long ago. He does things none of us could do without being punished."

"That's stupid," Lily growled. "Gold, stop bothering them."

"Bothering? Who is bothering?" He was glad he had negotiated this end to their trickery; Lily had wanted to send him away and have him follow her orders.

"You are, and you just spoke ill of Claw," she retorted smugly. "So by your own rules you are breaking them."

"I am not," he objected petulantly, channeling season-cycles of lost arguments with his Dam into a single angry huff. "You are!" He then flung himself into the air with a growl, and promptly put as much distance between himself and them as he could before bursting into a rumbling laugh.

Lily caught up a few moments later, flying behind him. "That could have been more smooth," she said. "You were _way_ too obnoxious and stupid there. It wasn't believable."

"Not for you, but they do not have high opinions of me," Gold retorted. "Did you see a single moment where they looked suspicious? I did not. They were too busy caught up in not liking me or what I said."

"We're going to Pyre to practice," Lily asserted. "We should have done that first. But… yes, you are right, they fell for it. Good work."

"I had the hard part," Gold remarked. "You did not say much."

"You had to be obnoxious and take everything to extremes, and you had to make it at least somewhat believable. I only had to act as a voice of reason, and contrast your… everything." Lily barked a short laugh. "But you can pull off 'obnoxious' far better than I can, so I do not think we should switch in the future."

"Let us hear what Pyre thinks," Gold bargained. He knew Pyre would side with Lily, but at least then he could pretend he was deferring to Pyre, not her. He had to get some small victories in now and then.

O-O-O-O-O

"So I pouted like an angry fledgling, gave no good retort, and fled the scene," Gold finished, miming flapping his wings to emphasize how he had left.

Pyre, who was sitting at the back of the cave, watched his wings for a moment before looking over at Lily. "How did you end it?"

"Nothing all that interesting, I just apologized for my mate, said he was extra enthusiastic after Claw chastised him for not catching the traitor, and wished them a good day," Lily reported smugly. "They were both _very_ sympathetic with me, and I think they were troubled by some of the hints Gold slipped into his arguments."

"Yes, those were clever," Pyre said. "But you might want to stagger what you strike at in the future. One argument with each other pushes home Claw's hypocrisy, another how anything he says goes, another how unhappy Pearl is, and so forth. Diversify the audiences' worries, so that when they speak to each other they only find more problems, not reassurance."

"That will take a while, since we cannot do this too often," Lily huffed. "Moon-cycles, probably."

"You have the time," Pyre said gently. "Get Crystal some help, or have her stop risking herself, and keep looking after Pearl. It is better to do something _well_ than to do it fast, as long as you have no deadline."

"Any other advice?" Gold asked. "Such as whether we should swap positions each time?"

"That would be bad, you need to be consistent," Pyre said. "But, you could swap now, and keep it the other way from now on."

"I am better at being the reasonable voice, I do _not_ want to praise Claw, and Gold cannot afford to go against Claw, even if this isn't technically opposing him," Lily said urgently. "It seems like a very bad idea to switch our positions."

"Maybe, but who can be more annoying?" Pyre asked rhetorically. "Let's check that first. I will give you both positions to argue, and I want you to be as aggravating as you can without breaking from the topic."

"Okay, but I still think us arguing the other sides for real would be bad," Lily said.

"The topic," Pyre announced, ignoring her objection, "is… Let's say supplying fish to the valley. Gold, you are in favor of the males doing so, for everyone. Lily, you say that the females should. Remember, you are not trying to argue it _well,_ you are trying to make your side as unlikable as possible while sticking to the topic. You will have a short while to think up your arguments."

Gold found himself intrigued by the question, and quickly set to work thinking of terrible arguments. The obvious divide was along gender lines, so if he wanted to make himself unlikable, he had to use that and insult _both_ sides. Coming up with ways to tie the insults into the question at paw was the hard part.

"Time," Pyre purred after what felt like far too short an interval, at least to Gold. "Now, I want you both to say you don't believe whatever you are about to argue."

"That's implied," Lily snorted.

"Say it anyway," Pyre requested. "I suspect you both have very nasty, irritating arguments ready. Some reassurance will help keep things light."

"Well, I, for one, have a hard time believing _anyone_ would really say my things, but I am trusting my superior acting abilities to make it believable," Gold volunteered, seeing Pyre's point. He could imagine a scenario in which Lily took what he was about to say as his true opinions, and it was not pretty.

"Oh, this is going to be terrible," Lily snorted. "I don't believe a single thing I'm about to say either."

"And…" Pyre slapped his tail against the ground. "Begin! Lily, you first."

"Obviously, the females should be the ones to supply the fish to the pack," Lily said haughtily. "We're smarter than males, so we will be able to find the fish faster."

"Smarter?" Gold snorted, adapting on the fly since she had claimed his first argument for herself. "Come on, we both know that is not true. The males are smarter. But it does not matter, the males do everything else for this pack, so we should provide fish too."

"Everything else?" Lily snorted. "What do you do, exactly? The females raise the children, the females…" She trailed off. "Well, we do more than you."

"You cannot even come up with two things," Gold crowed. "Maybe the females _should_ fish for everyone, it would mean they were providing something useful for once."

"And who will watch the fledglings?" Lily asked, glaring at him. "We would all come back to find that they had been ignored or abused."

Gold was impressed despite himself; he had the urge to defend his side of the argument for real, even though he partially agreed with that assessment. The scathing way she had said it was perfect to make him _mad_ , even knowing it was intentionally provocative. "Sure, because every single female in the pack has a fledgling to pass off," he snorted. "That is true for the males, we are all mated. There are plenty of you without other responsibilities."

"Well…" Lily paused, again at a loss for what to say next. "Ignoring all of that, I…"

An idea occurred to Gold, and he decided to pursue it. "Actually, I take it back," he purred. "There is one advantage to females going for the fish."

"What is that?" Lily asked warily.

"You have one more place to hold the fish, so you will be able to bring more back," Gold laughed, breaking character.

Lily scowled, shaking her head wildly. "You win," she snorted. "I cannot top that."

"Sure you could," Gold chuckled. "The retort is that males can slide the fish onto their-"

"Enough," Pyre said, though he was purring in amusement. "That wasn't very good, from either of you."

"The prompt wasn't good either," Lily retorted. "There were only two options, either attack the males, or promote the females, and one of those isn't even offensive."

"My fault," Pyre admitted. "Want another?"

Gold eyed Lily, wondering what she wanted. _He_ would be happy to try again, with something easier to work with, but if she had taken it to heart, he'd rather stop.

"Give us a better one," Lily requested, grinning toothily. "I need to even the score."

O-O-O-O-O

It was night, cloudy and dark. Gold had his head pillowed on Lily's flank, and his tail against her nose. He could feel her breathing on his tailfins.

He could also feel a presence nearby, something blocking the breeze where it shouldn't. He doubted that had woken him, he was far too heavy a sleeper for such a thing to suffice, but _something_ had, and now he noticed.

The presence withdrew, letting the breeze back as it moved, and then someone leaped up onto their rock, balancing on the small empty space they had left in cuddling together. The rock wasn't normally big enough for three light wings, but Gold was lying on top of Lily as much as he was beside her.

Gold could tell that it wasn't Claw; Claw wouldn't be this clandestine. He also didn't really feel like leaping up to deal with it. So, instead of calling out, he began to tickle Lily's nose with the tips of his fins. If he was lucky-

Lily snorted a wet sneeze, almost blew his tailfins off with a tiny blast of fire, and startled awake. The presence made to leave, but under the pretense of reacting to Lily's blast, Gold flicked his tail out to the side and tangled a paw, and Lily jerked upright when claws scrabbled over the rock and slipped off the edge.

"Crystal?" Lily hissed. "What are you _doing_?"

Gold rumbled sleepily, immensely pleased with himself. He wouldn't have to deal with this at all, and they didn't even know he was awake. He sensed a perfect opportunity for eavesdropping.

"Getting you!" Crystal hissed back. "I want to go somewhere and talk."

"Here is fine, if you are quiet," Lily replied. "Gold hasn't even woken up."

Gold rumbled again, rolling to the side and nuzzling at Lily's paw. He never moved this much when he was really asleep… most of the time. On occasion, he'd woken up and needed to go wash off in the ocean, but that was another story.

"Good," Crystal huffed. "I heard you and Gold got into a spat today, and that he defended Claw."

"All staged," Lily assured her. "We were trying something. Expect a lot more of those arguments. They are not real."

"At least you are doing _something_ ," Crystal huffed.

"Sorry about that," Lily sighed. "Come on up. Really."

"There is no room," Crystal said skeptically.

"My mate is a heavy sleeper, so I can just..." Lily shoved him onto his stomach, and he let himself be moved. He was rewarded for his compliance when she all but lay on him, head to head and tail to tail.

"There," Lily purred. "Now there is room."

Crystal didn't mention the intimate way of saving space, opting instead to leap up onto the rock in silence.

"I guess I have to thank you," Crystal said quietly once she was settled. "If you had not fixed Gold, I would have been caught for real, or been forced to trade something worse than humiliation for my safety."

"You should not be out agitating like that," Lily said. "At least get someone to help."

"I would have, if she was not so tied up in her mate," Crystal huffed.

"Again, sorry, but I needed to sort us out before I could focus on anything else… and I ended up really liking what I was finding, so I got distracted." Lily lifted a paw to pat his forehead condescendingly.

"Do not tell me that," Crystal said, her voice low and sad. "I wish I was in your place."

"We'll get you there eventually," Lily promised. "Just do not put yourself in danger like that. Claw will hurt you if he catches you."

"I know, I just do not care," Crystal replied. "But I get your point, I will be more careful."

"Good," Lily said.

"Gold already made that point," Crystal added. "Do me a favor and bite him next time he gives you an excuse. I was scared witless, and ready to do whatever it took to keep his mouth shut, and he used that to make me look stupid. It was not funny at all."

"I'll bite him next time the opportunity arises," Lily hummed. "But he let you off lightly."

"Yes, he did, but that does not make him any less of a creep," Crystal griped.

Gold flicked his ears, and pushed his wings around under Lily's stomach, pretending that her weight was bothering him in his sleep. He was done listening to Crystal whine, and Lily could not keep her here by their rock if she was forced to relinquish her seat.

Oddly, Lily didn't take his obvious hint, completely ignoring him. "Maybe I can make you feel better," she offered. "Want to hear something funny?"

"About him?" Crystal asked.

"Yes," Lily confirmed.

"Sure."

Gold held his ears down out of sheer force of will, refusing to betray his awareness by flicking them up in anticipation, as he usually would. He wondered what Lily was going to say.

"He's tiny," Lily said, with the air of one revealing a huge secret. "Absolutely miniscule."

Crystal said nothing for a few heartbeats. Then she groaned quietly. "I did not need to know that."

Gold felt like he would rather not have heard it either. Since when was he small? Lily certainly did not _act_ like he was small.

"It's about the size of a worm," Lily revealed. "And it has these weird yellow spots all over it." She leaned down and clamped her jaws on his ear, toothless gums pressing down.

Gold knew he had been caught. He most certainly did _not_ have yellow spots _anywhere_ , and Lily knew it too. She was taunting him, having at some point realized that he was faking being asleep.

Worst of all, if he understood her correctly, the jaws on his ear were a threat. If he revealed himself, she really would bite him.

" _Really_?" Crystal said, now intrigued and, by the sound of it, more than a little disgusted. "Lily, that sounds like a disease of some kind."

"I asked his Dam, and she said it is inherited from his Sire," Lily lied. "Tiny, yellow spots, and absolutely no stamina. If he wasn't so good with his tongue, I would be disappointed." Her gums had left his head, but a warning paw had taken their place, and he was mentally debating whether being bitten was worth refuting all of Lily's lies. He might have taken the trade, if there was any easy way to prove her wrong without giving her a whole new reason to be mad at him.

"Too much information," Crystal groaned. "Still, that makes me feel better. Would it hurt if that rumor spread?"

Gold flicked his tail against Lily's side, out of Crystal's line of sight. If she let Crystal spread that around, he _would_ get her back, threat of being bitten or not.

"Don't," Lily said, much to his relief, "there's only one person who knows about his oddities. Keep it secret."

"For you," Crystal promised. "But if I laugh in his face the next time we meet, you get to explain why."

"I'll come up with something," Lily snorted. "See you tomorrow?"

"We can catch up more then." Crystal leaped off the rock, and Gold assumed that she departed quickly. Lily made no move to get off of him.

"That's what you get for eavesdropping," she whispered in his ear. "And for what you did to Crystal. Mostly what you did to Crystal. Eavesdropping is acceptable."

"I do not have a tiny, yellow-spotted-" he began, only to be silenced by a paw to his nose.

"No, but Crystal needed a laugh and you needed to be taught a lesson," Lily snorted. "Also, now she will not hate you for what you did, because she will think she knows something embarrassing about you. It works for everyone so long as you do not disabuse her."

"I cannot anyway," Gold snorted. "But I am going to disabuse _you_ the first chance I get." He wasn't that mad, hearing her other explanations, but his pride would take some rebuilding, and having her howling his name under him would be the way to do that.

"And I'll bite you," she promised in a sultry voice. "Wait a few moments, then we can sneak off to the ledges."

Gold _had_ been about to suggest they go first thing in the morning, but he was more than happy to throw that away and go with her plan.


	25. Gold - Proactive (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and some aspects of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: It's time for part 6 of Gold's mini-saga, and I refuse to even hint at what is going to happen. Read on if you want to find out.**

* * *

Suspicion hung over the valley like fog, stifling laughter and stilling tails. Conversations were stilted wherever Claw went, which fueled his suspicion even more.

Gold had witnessed three interrogations in the last two days, and those only because he had been in the area at the time. Now, he suspected he was about to see a fourth, and it was not even midday yet.

Claw landed on the rock of a small family, dropping out of nowhere and startling a bark out of the male. "You," he growled.

The male knelt low, his chin to the ground, and with his tail he subtly shoved the fledgling behind him toward his mate. "Alpha, what do you need of me?" he asked, obviously making an effort to sound as subservient and spineless as possible.

"Where were you last night?" Claw snarled. "Where was your mate?"

"Here, alpha!" the male cried out. "Both of us!"

"The night before?"

"Also here!"

"Before that?"

"We went to the ledges," the male admitted.

"Where did you leave your fledgling?" Claw asked.

"Why?" the female intervened. "We have not _done_ anything."

"Just checking." Claw jumped back into the air and left, winging toward the caves.

Gold sighed, leaving the confused and relieved family behind. There was no rhyme or reason to Claw's interrogations, just anger and questions. He wasn't even sure _why_ Claw was so suspicious nowadays. Gold's 'arguments' with Lily were objectively harmless unless one was sly enough to see the underlying purpose, and Crystal had stopped agitating openly. Aside from the unresolved mystery she had left behind, there was nothing to imply Claw's leadership was under attack.

But that was an unresolved issue, and Claw was still hunting, so he supposed it made sense. Claw's _approach_ to said hunting, less so, but when had Claw ever been particularly clever?

Gold emerged from between two rocks and beheld the pond. His eyes immediately went to his mate, whose back was to him. Her tail swayed as she drank, and he contemplated startling her. He stepped lightly, closing in on her.

She would be annoyed, but her yelp would be worth it. He needed something to brighten his mood. He prepared to leap, planning to land on her back. He crouched, just behind her...

She abruptly struck the water with her paw, splashing it back at him. He reflexively closed his eyes, and when he opened them again she was staring into them, her grey gaze amused, while water dripped from his nose.

Not one to lose the initiative, he licked her nose, slobbering all over her face with glee. In the heartbeat it took her to react and pull back, he got her just as wet as she had gotten him, and with a far stickier substance.

"Gold!" she exclaimed, blowing air through her nose.

"Me!" he barked back, pleased with himself.

"I'm going to get you for that," she promised, closing her eyes and turning around to dunk her face in the pond. "We sleep together, remember that. I have ample time to enact revenge."

"How could I _forget_?" he sighed, happily ignoring the threat in favor of thinking about how pleasant sleeping with her was.

"You were distracted," she replied without missing a beat.

"Every single time," he hummed, thinking of all the ways she had to _distract_ him. "You done here?"

"I want to find Crystal," she admitted. "She will show up soon. Mind if I linger until she does?"

"I'll walk around the pond," Gold suggested. "If she does not show after two circles, then you will catch up with her tomorrow. Deal?" He had learned that proposing compromises was the way to go, when dealing with minor things. It was Lily's go-to for resolving things, and by doing so first he got to have the satisfaction of her agreeing with _his_ idea.

"Yes, that is fair," Lily agreed. "Then we can go flying."

Gold sidled around her, dipped his tail in the pond, and flicked it as he left, spraying her with water. She snorted and splashed another pawful at him, though it fell short, and then they were too far apart for any further exchanges.

He spent the time it took to get to the other side planning how he was going to get her this time around. It promised to be more difficult, as she would definitely be on the lookout, but a quick splashing followed by a flat-out run would probably surprise her.

He noticed a light wing landing by Lily, and looked long enough to determine it wasn't Crystal. He would have ignored said light wing after that, except that she struck up a conversation with Lily…

And, he noticed, not a friendly one. Lily was crouching by the edge of the pond by the time he made it two thirds of the way around, her tail swaying angrily, and the other female was baring her teeth. He sped up, wondering what they were arguing about, but the female left before he got to them.

"Gold, move faster," Lily called out, her voice strained but pleasant. Too pleasant; he could think of no _good_ reason for her to want him to return quicker, and that meant it was a front. He broke into a run, not caring how it made him look to come running when his mate called. This sounded serious.

"What is up?" he asked casually, sidling up alongside her. Her wings were twitching anxiously, which was yet another bad sign.

"That was Cressa," Lily hissed. "She came looking for an argument, and she hinted that she would lead Claw to Pyre!"

Gold didn't need to have the consequences of that laid out for him; Claw was hunting a traitor, and there was a flightless exiled light wing within reach of a short flight. He would take out his impotent frustration on Pyre if he found him, regardless of how he couldn't possibly be the traitor. Presumably, Cressa could lead him straight to Pyre, too, else Lily wouldn't be worried.

"Can Pyre hide?" Gold asked. That seemed like the easiest solution.

"I'm going up there right now to watch over him," Lily said, not directly answering him. "You keep Claw off our backs for a while. Cressa did not say she was going to set Claw on him _right now_ , but we should assume as much."

Gold opened his mouth to object that he didn't know how he would do that, then closed it again. This wasn't the time for arguing. "I'll try," he said confidently. He didn't know how, but she needed his help and he would do his best to give it.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold flew over the valley a very short time later, looking for Claw. He had gone off somewhere in the short time since Gold had last seen him, and that was a problem.

But there was another light wing circling around with their eyes roving across the valley below, and there were several ways to solve this particular problem. If it was a race between him and Cressa, nothing said he couldn't sabotage her.

He flew over to her, passing in front of her in order to ensure she noticed his presence. "I heard you were looking for Claw?" he called out.

"Why do you care?" Cressa hissed back. "Mate of my insolent, idiotic failure of a daughter."

Gold resolved to find wherever Cressa slept at night and relieve himself there, but outwardly he grimaced and nodded. "Yes, and I feel like spiting her. You will find Claw searching for traitors out over the forest, away from the shoreline. Go do whatever has her so upset, she would not even bother telling me."

"You might not be so bad," Cressa hummed. She set out in the direction he had indicated without ever thinking to question his motives. He rolled his eyes. It appeared that whatever made Lily and Pyre so devious had skipped the generation in between. The air above the forest was the place Claw was _least_ likely to go for any reason, and Gold doubted he had even left the valley.

That aside, Gold had no clue where he _was_ right this moment. He swooped low, gliding above the valley and once again checking all the obvious places. The plateau was empty, he wasn't by the pond or waste pit, and there was nowhere _else_ for him to be. The caves would be swarming with hatchlings and fledglings at this time of day, and he had it on good authority that Claw didn't have anything to do with his offspring most of the time, so he would not be there…

Gold knew he had tricked Cressa into giving him a big head start, but he was beginning to wonder if Claw had actually, for some unfathomable reason, gone flying outside the valley. That would be ironic, and very bad.

An angry roar saved him from his worries, and a flapping male with a thunderous look on his face brought him a new set of worries right away. "Alpha," he called out. "Over here!" Somehow, in planning to get to Claw first, he had managed to avoid thinking about what he would do next, and now he was stuck improvising.

Claw jerked around in the air, beating at it in a very inefficient fashion in his haste, and flew straight for Gold. "What?" he barked, barreling forward on a collision course.

Gold spun out of the way and wheeled around to follow, spinning a lie in his mind as he moved. "The traitor!" he barked back. "I saw someone camouflaged in the dark side of the valley!" The point was to keep Claw away from Pyre and out of sight of Cressa, and having him searching there would do both.

"Finally," Claw snarled, diving down toward said shadowed place. "Lead me there!"

Gold hadn't anticipated being dragged along, but he couldn't exactly argue. He obligingly took the lead and did his best to act like he knew where he was going, headed for the outskirts of the shaded area. He set down quietly-

Claw slammed into a rock so hard Gold flinched. "Where?" he growled.

"Somewhere near here, headed deeper," Gold lied, walking in between two sharply-edged boulders. "I am not sure what direction."

"Then _search_ , do not give excuses," Claw hissed, leaping ahead of him. A heavy tail slapped his face as Claw passed, and he reared back until his eyes stopped watering.

They walked in silence for a little while. Gold kept careful track of the breathing and movements of the dragon in front of him, knowing that Claw's mood was both important and prone to swinging at small things.

Strangely, the search, though entirely fruitless, seemed to calm the angry alpha down to something more reasonable. His steps grew softer, his breathing lighter and quieter.

It was, Gold realized with a shiver of dread, a change from searching to _hunting_. He was glad there was nobody to hunt, but also worried that said lack would turn into Claw hunting him in some way.

"Is it the same one as before?" Claw asked gruffly.

"I could not tell," Gold replied, wondering why Claw expected him to know that. Maybe it was a trap meant to catch him in a lie. If he had answered yes or no, he would be in a tight spot.

"Twice, you have failed," Claw hissed. "Do not fail again."

Gold held his , he had plenty of practice rolling over and submitting when it came to Claw, so that was his first instinct. If there was a trap to be had, it would be in getting on Claw's bad side right now.

"Yes, alpha," he said dully.

"If you fail again, I will punish you," Claw said. "And maybe your mate, as well."

"I would not like to see Lily harmed," Gold said noncommittally, unable to continue with the bland acceptance when it came to that. Not only did he not want to, no sane male would be able to, so doing so would be suspicious.

"She is your mate," Claw acknowledged. "And a very, very attractive one."

"Yes." Gold contemplated 'seeing' the camouflaged light wing, but that would be too convenient. He could only use that trick sparingly, and this was not immediately dangerous enough to call for it.

That didn't mean he was going to follow along and let Claw direct things, though. "But I have always admired other females more," he offered. "Your mates include the finest females in the pack, like her Dam." False praise came easily to him, and far more easily than listening to any more all too sincere praise from Claw about Lily.

"Lily has certain qualities that make her attractive," Claw rumbled. They were still searching, but Gold suspected that short of an actual camouflaged light wing passing in front of him, he had forgotten about the search's real purpose.

"Promises of qualities, anyway," Gold retorted, trying once more to redirect the conversation to safer, less sickening skies. "She is a promise, and Cressa is an example of what she will be. You have the real thing."

"Cressa has a way about her," Claw agreed fondly. "A nimble tongue, a nimble tail… Lily may have gotten that from her."

"I would not know, her tongue is always sharp for me," Gold quipped. "She has a way with words." He ducked down a side passage, desperate to get Claw off of this subject. "Can you smell anything down here?" he asked. "I cannot tell if someone has been by recently."

Claw shoved past Gold and into the corridor, and inhaled deeply. "No, nothing," he growled. "This was a waste of time."

Gold agreed with that; wasting Claw's time in a forgotten corner of the valley was exactly what he was going for. By now, Lily had definitely gotten to Pyre and warned him. The more time he could give them, the better, but-

"There!" Claw snarled and leaped forward, pursuing a moving patch of shadow. Some _stupid_ light wing fled, camouflaged and unwittingly sticking their idiot self into this hunt. Gold followed, thinking frantically. What was he supposed to do _now_? Let Claw catch that light wing, and hope they had an amazingly good explanation for being camouflaged and fleeing? That way would get him and Lily out of trouble…

He leaped from rock to rock, following Claw and doing his best to look like he was trying to help while being utterly ineffective. He didn't block the camouflaged light wing as they fled, though he _did_ take the chance to pounce, miss, and trip up Claw in a wider corridor.

Two back paws tangled on his wings, he rolled with the blow, and Claw's hindquarters came down on his chest. He took a nasty scratch as Claw kicked free, but he had 'accidentally' given the stranger a small lead, which they used to take to the air.

Claw followed, snarling all the way, and Gold forced himself after them. He flew as fast as he could, coming level with Claw, and then pulling ahead. "I will get them, alpha!" he proclaimed. This could go the way of his last chase with a camouflaged dragon. Hopefully it was Crystal he was chasing, she would remember what he had done.

Whoever it was, they fled up toward the mountains, and out over the forest beyond. Gold spared a moment to wonder whether he and Claw would run into Cressa, and another to wonder what in the world this light wing was thinking.

The light wing dove, twirled and juked from side to side as he and Claw doggedly pursued. The bright, clear sunlight made it easier than normal to keep track of the shimmer of camouflage, though it still was not _easy_ by any stretch of the imagination, and when Gold really did lose their trail, Claw did too.

Claw snarled, cast about in the sky, and then turned on Gold. Gold had fully expected that, and managed to dodge the angry slash of claws aimed at his face. "He is still around somewhere!" he frantically cried out.

A flash of camouflage off to his right gave truth to what he had intended to be a lie. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the dragon dove down to the treetops and crashed through-

The noise caught Claw's attention, and he spun into a dive with a speed born more of strength wielded against the air than actual skill. Gold watched in amazement as Claw _flung_ himself down into the obvious opening the other light wing had made. That wasn't a smart move for either of them.

Claw roared angrily down below the trees, and then again a few moments later. Gold circled above, wondering whether he would be punished for not following. He could give the excuse that he was watching to be sure they did not come back up through the same hole; that would probably sound reasonable to Claw.

A small shadow passed over him, and he flinched as he looked up, wondering what the newest addition to this stupid, unlikely chase would be. He was rewarded with the appreciable sight of Lily's underbelly.

"What is going on out here?" she demanded, flying lower. "First I see Cressa going out for no reason, then she comes back, then you and Claw fly out here, and now Claw is gone."

"You are done with what you were doing?" Gold asked casually. "Because we are chasing a traitor… I think." He nodded down at the hole in the treetops. "It sounds like they have given Claw the slip."

"I'm done," Lily confirmed, frowning down at the hole. "I hope that is not Crystal," she said quietly.

"Better her than some hapless idiot who decided today was a good day to go around camouflaged," Gold retorted. Crystal knew the risks and was mentally prepared to flee if the worst happened – which it had. She wouldn't get caught.

Lily began a retort, but she had not gotten out more than the beginning of a rumble when Claw lurched into view. He smashed his paws down on the top of a tree, bending it with his weight, and barely made it into the air. He was bleeding in several places from his rapid descent, and his expression was murderous as he flapped toward them.

Gold watched his blood drip into the air and fall away. He looked at the anger, and thought of all he had been told. He remembered Claw talking about Lily in a way that pointed to his deeper sicknesses.

If he was honest with himself, it was the latter thought that had his blood boiling and his mind scheming. _Nobody_ got to covet _his_ mate, let alone her own Sire, and it was well past time something was done about it. Right now, Claw was in the right state of mind to be led into something-

And just like that, he had an idea. A terrible, treacherous idea that his time with Lily and this day's events so far had convinced him he could pull off. "Alpha," he roared, "they fled into the sky again!"

"Where?" Claw demanded, as angry and ready to hunt as ever, though his wings hitched in the air.

"This way," Gold said, pointing himself toward the sea. "Lily saw them pass by her, and we know where they are headed."

He flew toward the ocean, and both Lily and Claw followed. Both would want an explanation, and he could give one that served for both of them. "Do you know of the island?" he asked, spinning yet another lie.

"Which one?" Claw asked, avoiding admitting that he didn't. He wouldn't; as far as Gold knew, there were no islands anywhere around. He only knew the term because his Dam had taught it to him, not because he had ever seen one.

"The one just out of sight, this way," he elaborated. They passed over the shore, and out into the sky above the ocean. "It is a long flight, but it has a stream, and some hills, and a tiny forest. They went this way, and they must be going there."

"That would be a place to hide after narrowly avoiding the alpha," Lily mused. She caught his eye, and did not ask the question they both knew she wanted to ask. She would trust that he knew what he was doing.

A rush of confidence filled Gold, and he knew he could do this. Claw had tunnel-vision, and that meant he would believe with the right tricks. This sort of opportunity might not come again.

"How do you know of this place?" Claw demanded.

"Variety is the best part of life, and we wanted some _privacy_ ," Gold said smoothly.

"You are not supposed to _tell_ people that," Lily loudly hissed, playing into the lie perfectly.

"Well, the alpha asked," Gold retorted.

"Still!" Lily insisted. "You found out about it because you were chasing a school of fish, you could have just said that."

"Maybe I could have," Gold conceded. He suspected that she actually was upset that he had made the backstory about mating, given who he was talking to, but it was the first thing that had come to mind. It was not like he was reminding Claw of some ignored inclination; what Claw had said and done earlier made perfectly clear that the twisted, wrong desire that had driven Lily to Gold was still very much present and awaiting the right excuse to be acted upon.

"I want to hear exactly what you know of this island, and how," Claw said coldly.

"It is small, far too small to hide a light wing if three people are searching," Gold said. He knew better than to elaborate too much, so he stuck to the facts he thought Claw would want to know. "Hard to see, too. You might miss it on the horizon if you did not know what to look for."

"And _how_ is frankly none of your business," Lily huffed. Gold resisted the urge to look back, but he kept his ears up. Thankfully, he didn't hear either of them changing their positions relative to him, so Claw wasn't about to strike at Lily for her insolence.

Then again, Claw did not strike at the females nearly as much as he did the males. His treatment of them was far less openly violent… and given what Lily had told him, far _worse_ if they were not happy to play along with his intentions. The most Gold had to worry about were cuts and bruises, so long as he kept his head down and obeyed. Lily feared something far, far more sinister.

They flew in silence after that. Gold's wings began to ache, but he knew he had a long way to go yet, and he ignored them. Thankfully, after Lily's little mishap with getting into shape, he had a much clearer idea of her limits, and his. She would be able to identify when she was getting dangerously tired, and he had more stamina than she did. So long as she did not propose turning back, he was fine.

Besides, they needed to go far out over the ocean, far enough that the valley was only barely visible in the distance.

Far enough that nobody fishing would see them. Nobody at all would see them.

As they flew, leading Claw to an island that did not exist, Gold felt more and more sure of what he had in mind. He could barely see the mountains behind them when he looked back, and if there were any light wings flying over the waters, they were too far to make out. The same could be said for his little group.

Claw's wings began to hitch at every other flap, faltering ever so slightly. "Where is this place?" he growled.

"It will be showing on the horizon any moment," Gold said confidently. "You go ahead, you will probably spot it before I do. My vision is bad." He fell back, and so did Lily. Claw led them, flying ahead.

Gold said nothing to his mate; he did not trust that Claw wouldn't hear them. Instead, he stuck out his paws, caught her attention, and let his claws out. He clutched at the air, then flew over her, batting his tail down at her wings.

When he flew back to her side, he saw that she understood. She stared at Claw, gauging the risk he was proposing. Wondering, if he had to guess, whether they would ever get another chance like this. Claw did not usually go anywhere outside the valley, let alone without an escort he could trust. He had chased an enemy that was partly real and partly fiction, and he had done so stupidly, believing them as they led him here.

Lily nodded, and her claws came out. She flew up, over Claw. "I see it," she claimed. "Squint, it is right in front of us, on the horizon."

Claw strained forward, flapping hard, and narrowed his eyes to look. Gold watched from behind. He did not give a rotten fish for his oaths to Claw, not really, and he was not holding back because he thought he couldn't strike for himself. He was holding back in case something went wrong and Lily needed him to swoop in to save her.

Lily dropped, raked her claws through both of Claw's wings, and pushed off of his back as he roared in agony. His wings pulled up and smacked into her, but she ignored the impacts, making good on her escape. Multiple large tears were spreading through his wings, forced open as he roared incoherently and flailed to remain in the air.

There was only one way such an injury could end, when the one flying had no choice but to keep flying. Claw began losing altitude, his head angled down despite his efforts to turn. He flailed in the air, dropping down toward the restless waves, so far from land of any kind that it could barely be seen on the horizon. His wings were shredding themselves, and every flap was less effective than the last.

Lily circled around to fly by Gold. Her eyes were cold, and she watched, unflinching, as Claw roared and screeched his way down to the waves. He hit head-first and disappeared in a matter of heartbeats, having never said a word throughout the entire attack.

They circled around, but he didn't come back up.

"There is no island," Lily said in a faint voice.

"Nope," Gold confirmed. "But there was an opportunity."

"To murder the alpha and get away with it." she let out a shaky laugh. "Just like that. One and done. One trick, one short flight…"

"One _long_ flight," Gold corrected, feeling his aching wings. "We should not linger here. As it is, getting back is going to be a pain."

"We still need to get away with it," Lily huffed. "There will be consequences to Claw disappearing. This does not solve everything, it just rids us of him. The pack is still flawed and that is dangerous."

"I did not do this to fix the pack, or any of that," Gold explained. "I did it because he was talking about you in a bad way, and because Pyre was in danger, and because I saw the chance. The pack can fix itself, I care more about protecting you."

"I like that," Lily murmured, flying close. "Maybe I do not agree for myself… but I like it in you."

"Good, because I am not going to change it," Gold replied. "Now, I need some help. I have no clue how best to cover our tracks."

Lily barked an amused laugh. "Even now, you make jokes," she snorted.

"No, seriously," he insisted. "My plan was 'ask Lily to make a plan' past this part." He had thought up to whether it could be done and whether anyone would see them do it, not what would come afterward.

"Oh." She looked at him with wide eyes. "You planned a murder without having the clean-up thought out?"

"It was not a plan, it was improvising," he huffed. "We have the whole flight back." Hopefully, Lily would pick up the slack there.

"Well, I guess I have to help…" She looked back, her eyes narrowing. "This will have consequences no matter what we do."

"So long as they do not affect _us_ , then I do not care," he asserted.

"I think I can swing that," Lily admitted.

O-O-O-O-O

They flew back to the valley under the cover of camouflage; it was stupid, Lily had pointed out, to risk being seen returning from the scene of the crime, even if that would not necessarily contradict their story. The less anyone knew aside from their word on the subject, the better.

As such, they had flown down to the shore, then wandered in the forest until their camouflage wore off. They emerged from the forest and flew into the valley in full view of anyone who was looking, without a care in the world.

From there, they went to Crystal. She was at her parents' rock, lazing around. The subtle little cuts on her front and sides were barely visible, already licked and closing, but they _were_ evidence.

"Been here all day?" Lily asked conversationally, leaping up onto the rock.

"Because _we_ have had quite the day ourselves," Gold agreed. "Chasing a traitor with Claw, all of that fun stuff."

"He came across me when I was talking to Cedar..." Crystal huffed quietly. "Thank you for slowing him."

"For more than that," Lily said in a low voice. Gold made a show of hopping from rock to rock around Crystal, making sure there were no eavesdroppers. It was very unlikely, but he had a habit of assuming someone like himself might be sticking their nose where it didn't belong.

"Claw flew off into the horizon, chasing a camouflaged light wing we could not keep up with," Lily relayed. "He won't be coming back."

"You tricked him into chasing nothing?" Crystal asked. "He will be back sooner or later."

"Something a bit more permanent than that," Lily hedged, baring her teeth for a moment.

Crystal's eyes widened, then deliberately narrowed. She nodded. "Thank you."

"It was coming," Lily huffed, "but Gold was the one who saw the chance."

"Thank _you_ ," she called out to him. "But why tell me first?"

"Because we needed to be sure you were the one we had chased," Lily explained. "No loose ends."

After that, they split up. Gold went to the pond, and Lily into the caves. She would deal with Claw's many mates…

All of which were now unmated, though they didn't know it yet and might not figure it out for a while. Gold groaned inwardly, wondering once again why all of this couldn't have happened before he had his own mate. He would not trade Lily for just any female, but a few moon-cycles of seducing the better part of a whole _pack_ before settling down with her would have been the stuff of legends. And also him possibly the Sire of a half-dozen different eggs, but one could never have everything. Maybe it was better this had happened now.

In any case, his one and only mate would be spreading their version of events among Claw's former mates. He would be telling anyone he had the slightest excuse to speak to.

Cedar was easy to find, and easy to strike up a conversation with. "Duck," Gold cried out, intentionally flying low over Cedar's head. Cedar ducked, and in the process dunked his face in the pond.

"Go jump in the waste pit," Cedar growled, shaking himself vigorously. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to brag, and humiliating you sets the tone nicely," Gold quipped. "Guess what I did today?"

"Let your mate beat you senseless," Cedar shot back.

"That is later tonight," Gold retorted, ignoring the weak attempt at annoying him. " _I_ spent the day helping the alpha hunt down traitors. If it was not for me, we would have lost them."

"You actually caught someone?" Cedar asked. "Who?"

"Well, not _yet_ ," Gold admitted with a grimace. "Last Lily and I saw, Claw was chasing someone camouflaged out over the ocean. He was flying fast, and told us to give up. Lily got tired, so obviously I flew my mate back."

Cedar nodded, accepting the lie with ease. It was so close to the truth as to be indistinguishable to an outside observer; so long as nobody had seen them actually attack Claw, there was no difference between the lie and reality.

"You lucky short-winged idiot," Cedar snorted. "Why do you get all of the impressive feats? Liona would love it if I got on Claw's good side, she is always nervous about him."

Gold could have prodded at Cedar's budding attachment to Liona, and if he and Lily hadn't provoked it in the first place, he might have done so. Instead, he shrugged his wings. "You are just too slow, I guess," he offered.

Cedar responded by throwing a wing at his face, and the important part of the conversation was done. Gold leaped into the tussle, burning off some of his remaining nervous energy before he continued on his rounds. By nightfall, the lie would be firmly planted.

Nobody would know he and Lily had murdered the alpha.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was already at their rock when Gold returned, much to his relief. He could not be told he had not spread the news widely enough if she finished before he did. Not that he thought she would get on his case about that; she was not the one to badger him about petty little things. If she complained, it was about something she considered important and _actually_ his fault.

"To the ledges," Lily requested, leaping up before he even set down. He landed long enough to take off again, and followed his mate out over the mountains once more, through the rapidly darkening sky.

She did not speak until they were well above the mountaintops. "It is known in the caverns," she said warily, looking around even as they flew. "You?"

"It is known to all of our friends, and all of their neighbors, and by morning will be spreading as people ask where Claw is," Gold reported. He knew how that sort of thing worked, if only because his Dam routinely regaled him with the latest gossip from all over the pack. Or, she _had_ done so, before he got out from under her wing by taking a mate. He wondered whether he should have told his parents.

"He will be back soon," Lily said blandly. "And we won't say otherwise. Ever."

"Crystal knows, and that is it," Gold agreed.

"And Pyre," Lily revealed. "I had to tell him. He is still in hiding, though. We'll have to keep a careful eye on him while all of this plays out."

Gold landed on the ledge, and Lily landed beside him. "All of what? The alpha has gone chasing a traitor, or maybe just what he thought was a traitor. He'll probably never come back." As far as he was concerned, that was the perfect scenario for them. Nobody took the blame, but the deed had been done and everyone was a little bit safer for it, his mate most of all.

"Yes, but what happens when people realize that?" Lily replied, pacing around the ledge restlessly. "Who is alpha next? How will they even choose an alpha without anyone to challenge?"

"Sounds like a good time to make a clever plan and get one of us put in charge," Gold offered.

Lily shook her head. "No, don't you see? We can't. It would be way too suspicious. We were the last ones to see him, and if we start maneuvering to take power, everyone will suspect we did it."

"And that is bad because… why?" Gold asked.

"Because it was not a challenge and we were both there, so it does not have the excuse of being fair. Because I just spent a long time talking to all of the females who will hate us for murdering him and then covering it up." Lily huffed and looked down at the ground. "I don't think us taking over is a good idea, but I don't know what will happen next. There has to be some way to figure all of this out, but I am not used to doing something so huge without thinking through the consequences."

"Then do not think about it," Gold advised. "Just wait and see what happens." He walked over and put a comforting wing over her, pulling her close. " _I_ am not worried. It will all work out somehow, and you just said that the safe move for us is to do nothing. I am happy doing nothing." In fact, he would prefer doing nothing, if trying to take power was doomed to fail or at least make them hated.

"I am not confident the pack can fly out of this better than they flew in," Lily said.

"So?" Gold huffed, licking the back of her head. "Are you confident that we got away with it?"

"Yes," she admitted. "So long as we don't obviously benefit from his absence, nobody will suspect a thing."

"Are you confident Pyre is safer now than he was this morning?" Gold pressed.

"Yes, definitely," Lily agreed.

"That the whole _pack_ is safer than it was this morning?"

"For now, but that might change." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "But I guess we can wait and see…"

"That is the spirit. Now is the time to celebrate freeing Crystal and Pearl and all of those other oppressed females." He took his wing off of her and nudged at her side. "Do you feel like celebrating?"

"No," she said, surprising him. "It feels wrong to kill him and then mate to celebrate. Can we postpone that?"

"Sure," he granted. He certainly didn't see anything wrong with it, but if she did, it would be no fun anyway. It was in his best interests to be generous about accepting that. "We can do something else, like…"

He cast around for something to do on the ledges that was not inherently _entertaining_ in the way she had just said she didn't want. "We could watch the moon rise," he offered lamely.

"I would like that." She padded over to the outer end of the ledge and sat down, neatly arranging herself facing the darkening sky. He sat down right next to her, savoring the closeness.

The moon began to rise with painful slowness. Gold did his best to tolerate the boring lack of activity by daydreaming. He wondered whether she would mind if he fell asleep…

"Gold?" Lily said, breaking the silence.

"Yes?"

"This is really boring," she admitted. "And I am feeling much better about what happened today." She pulled her tail in and slid it under his hindquarters suggestively. "So I am thinking I was too hasty in saying no…"

Gold purred happily. Maybe she was changing him, but he was definitely having an effect on her too. "Glad to hear it," he rumbled.

_**Author's Note** _ **: Oh man, this is going to get hectic. Sorry, this chapter probably wasn't as funny as the previous ones, but it's hard to depict a cold-blooded murder** _**and** _ **make it humorous. (Not to say it can't be done, in fact I've seen multiple examples of exactly that in all sorts of fiction).**

**Anyway, this AU is about to go even more off the rails, and in the process I think I'll probably be addressing the question of 'what** _**would** _ **happen if Claw just disappeared one day, before Lily did any serious usurpation to prepare for his absence?' With the added complication of Gold influencing her, but still.**


	26. Gold - Rebellious (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This was originally going to be the final chapter of Gold's mini-series, but that was way too pessimistic of me. There's quite a bit left to have fun with! 2 more chapters, to be precise.**

* * *

Gold panted, happily exhausted, and rolled onto his side. Droplets of cold water fell from the dark clouds above, but he was happy to ignore them. His scales warmed them quickly enough, anyway, so he did not have to deal with lines of cold being traced down his body.

Lily, still presumably lying on her back, huffed a short laugh. "We cut it close," she panted. "Look."

Gold lazily turned an eye skyward, blinked out another raindrop, and saw that some miserable, wet light wings were flying in from beyond the mountains. Some looked down at the rocks, and he was glad he was still under the cover of camouflage. Not that he would risk mating atop their rock in plain sight without that, of course, no matter how empty the valley was right now. There was a fine line between the thrill of risking discovery and just putting on a show, and he didn't want to do the latter at all.

"They are back early," he observed. It was hard to tell with the clouds in the way, but he thought it was not much past noon. The searches for Claw tended to be out until shortly before sunset, or shortly after if they misjudged distances.

"Enthusiasm for looking might be running low," Lily theorized. The blur that was her body shifted, and he guessed that she had either rolled onto her side, or all the way to her stomach. "Sooner or later, people will start wondering."

A roar resounded from near the plateau, and Gold huffed. He would have credited her with a good prediction, if she had not said as much at least once a day since they had doomed Claw half a moon-cycle ago. "Something is going on," he said.

"We will go see as soon as we are visible again," Lily decided.

"Or you can go see?" It could not be anything too important; only one of the two big search parties had returned, and that meant a good portion of the pack was still out looking. Nobody hoping to make waves would start something without everyone present.

"We will both go see," Lily said serenely. He imagined that she looked innocent, as if not understanding that there was any alternative to that. The effect was somewhat lost when he couldn't see her, and even more so when it was _him_ she was trying to fool.

Still, he didn't have the energy to argue. Maybe if they had not just finished a hurried mating session under the cover of camouflage in a mostly deserted valley. He was still feeling the indolence that came afterward, and going with Lily was the path of least resistance.

So, when he felt his scales shimmering a short while later, he rolled to his paws, sighed heavily, and set out across the rocks, flying low because he had no reason to go up.

They set down near the plateau, eyeing the discussion already in progress. He recognized the female who was speaking most often, but none of the others, which was no great surprise. He had never bothered to look at Claw's many mates too closely.

But the one he did know was not a good sign, to say the least. Lily growled as Cressa spoke once again.

"Face the facts," Cressa snarled. "He is not here. We need leadership in his absence."

"Do we?" Gold hummed quietly, speaking for Lily's ears alone. "Nothing has fallen apart yet." As far as he could tell, Claw not being around had changed nothing significant about the pack's daily life. Claw had not exactly _contributed_ to anything except the growing number of children in the valley who shared his blood.

"He will return any moment now!" one of the females said stubbornly. "I do not want to listen to you until then."

"You will have to listen to someone, since you are spineless," Cressa hissed.

"Not you," another female shot back. "You led us all on a wild fish chase hunting some figment of your imagination."

Gold snorted, and he heard Lily do the same beside him. Pyre had been nowhere to be found, and Lily had, before any search could be mustered, contaminated his cave with stinking plants that made it impossible to smell whether any light wing used it as a home. A quick lie about fledglings making trouble had been all that was needed to explain the plants and discredit Cressa entirely; it was barely even a challenge for his intellect, or that of his mate.

Cressa growled something rude back at that female, but her credibility had taken a hit, and she had the small amount of cleverness required to not press the matter. "You will all reconsider when a decision needs to be made," she hissed, before leaping off the plateau.

"Pathetic," Gold judged. He would not have even made an attempt, were he in her place.

"Testing the waters," Lily argued. "This is going to come up again. We need to do something."

"Figured out what yet?" he asked lazily, watching the females by the plateau mill about pointlessly. Some went back to the caves, presumably to collect their children from the groups being watched over there, and others flew away.

"No, which is why we're going to Pyre," she said. "He will know what to do."

Gold didn't argue; letting her decide what they were doing was still the path of least resistance, and he was more than happy to follow and see where it led him.

O-O-O-O-O

Pyre had been moved out of his cave high up in the mountains, and his replacement dwelling was not nearly so nice. In place of a clear stone ledge and spacious cave was nothing more than a muddy hill, and under it a hollowed-out place barely big enough for him.

"I'm making a better spot further out," Pyre revealed, seeing right through Gold's lack of a reaction before he even claimed a place on the wet grass near the hill. Gold was used to being seen through by now, given how often Pyre and Lily managed it. "This is just what I could make on short notice. It's not luxurious, but it protects me from wind, rain, and the occasional estranged daughter with a vendetta."

"It could be better," Lily agreed, nosing around the hollow with an unimpressed look. "Can we help you make the better one, to speed things along?"

"No, I am just waiting for the clay to dry," Pyre said cryptically. Gold wasn't entirely clear on what clay _was_ , despite his own Sire being named for it, but he didn't ask. He was content to sit back in the wet grass and wait for Lily to bring up why they were here. It might have resembled what his Sire so often did, staying out of things and letting his mate talk, but he _could_ participate if he wanted to, and Lily would not mind in the slightest. There was a difference between inability and laziness, and he was firmly for the latter whenever possible.

"And besides," Pyre added, thumping his tail on the ground, "you come visiting for a reason. Else, Gold would not look so resigned to sitting through a long discussion."

"He's a liability, with how easily you extrapolate from him," Lily said fondly. "I'll have to teach him to hide things from you."

"I can hide things, I just have never bothered to try," Gold claimed. It was a lie, of course, but not one that could be disproven.

"Perhaps," Pyre said, bowing his head. "Anyway, what is it today? More news on Cressa?"

"She is beginning to angle toward leading or at least holding power," Lily said bluntly. "It's starting. I don't know what the best move for us is."

"Go over your reasoning," Pyre requested.

"The pack has no leader, Gold and I are implicated by association if we try to take advantage of it, meaning we cannot take power directly _and_ remain above suspicion," Lily recounted. "Those who are most likely to amass power are beginning to notice that it is available, Cressa first among them. She made moves today, and when others who might have plans hear, it will accelerate those plans."

"And what do you want out of this?" Pyre asked.

"Safety for the pack," Lily huffed.

Gold cleared his throat, catching her attention. "You do not care about Cressa's safety," he corrected her. "Safety for the people you do care about, maybe." He had the suspicion that Lily wanted to throw herself into somehow making the pack good for everyone, and that was just unrealistic.

"Okay, safety for the people I care about," Lily conceded. "There are a lot of those, though, and they include all of the young ones in the pack, so it is the same thing."

"Narrow your gaze to what you can call your own responsibility," Pyre advised solemnly. "Those hatchlings and fledglings have parents to look after them. Unless you are alpha, you cannot hold yourself accountable for the choices of those parents, and I will not condone taking their children to raise your own way."

Lily reeled back as if struck, opened her mouth to argue, and then stopped herself. Gold wasn't sure what about that had surprised her, and didn't really feel like speculating. What mattered was what she would end up actually saying, not what she contemplated along the way.

" _Just_ the people I know personally and want to see safe," she huffed. "Pina, Crystal, probably Pearl though she should be fine now that Claw is gone, all of my new friends who knew Gold first, and Gold's parents. And of course you two, but that is implied."

"Right," Gold hummed. Besides that, he didn't need her to scheme to protect him. Nobody was out to get him, for one thing, and if they were then he was capable of scheming on his own behalf.

"But all of that would be solved by just getting a reliable, moral person in to be alpha, or 'temporary' alpha." She wiggled her ears as she said temporary.

"And one that can keep the position on their own, without you spending too much time interfering," Pyre said. "That probably means complying with as many harmless customs as possible, to reduce unrest. People don't like change."

"Meaning they have to be male, trustworthy, and cunning." Lily looked over at Gold.

Gold ran the idea around in his mind for all of a heartbeat. "No way, and we already said I cannot because it would be suspicious," he said vehemently. He did _not_ want the responsibility without any of the benefits. He already had Lily, taking charge of the pack would just eat up all of his spare time and make him miserable. Power was only good so long as there was something he could get with it, and no amount of power would protect him from Lily's retribution if he started sleeping around, the only thing he had ever really wanted from the power being offered.

"Well, it cannot be Pyre, Cressa has already bad-mouthed him and will gain credibility if it turns out he does exist," Lily complained. "The only other males I know are either spineless, or way too immature, like Cedar or Root."

"No argument there," Gold murmured. "I do not have any suggestions."

"Even if we assume that putting a female in charge will not be a problem, it causes more issues in the future," Pyre added. "Actually, so long as the new alpha does not take over all the mates Claw had, there will be an imbalance."

"No matter what we do, we either leave things broken, or break them more," Lily said bitterly.

"Or we go somewhere with no preset rules to correct," Pyre suggested, his ears perking up. "This valley is good, but it has so many things to maneuver around. Why not take those you care for and set out on your own? The alpha who would stop that is gone."

"And abandon everyone else?" Lily huffed. "That's a terrible idea."

"Abandon the troublemakers," Gold said, arguing for the sake of it. He had no clue where they would go, and no desire to go anywhere, but Lily's objection wasn't a good one. "Keep the good ones. Say that we are a new pack who make our own rules. That would solve all of our problems immediately."

"By also abandoning a great location for the unknown wilds beyond," Lily retorted. "Unless you know of a place we could settle, Pyre?" She looked to him expectantly.

"No, my knowledge is decades out of date," Pyre admitted. "It was a suggestion, but it may not be the only one."

They continued to discuss the issue, but Gold tuned them out once Lily began going over the candidates for the next alpha again. If she was retreading old ground, it meant she didn't have anything new to say. She was not one to repeat herself for the sake of hearing her own voice.

He closed his eyes, letting his mind drift. It was not so bad out here in the forest. The grass was ticklish, but apparently Pyre could make halfway decent dens in the ground, given time. Leaving was not a _horrible_ idea, but it sounded like a lot of work. It would take some doing to convince him that it was worth the effort.

O-O-O-O-O

The next morning dawned dark and dreary, just like the last, and Gold drank from a puddle on the ground rather than making the cold, unpleasant flight to the pond. He snuggled up beside Lily, once again appreciating how having a mate improved his sleeping conditions. If he was back on his parents' rock, his Dam would be waking him by now, sending him out for fish if his Sire wasn't picked for that duty. Here, he could just wait…

And, while he was waiting, he could absently lick her shoulder. He was awake now, and the drizzle made it hard to go back to sleep, even as it also made him _want_ to nap the day away. Some persistent, gentle annoyances would get her up.

"Everyone up!" a shrill female shrieked, flying right over them. "Everyone up!"

Lily jerked up, and her wings shoved Gold off of her and right into the puddle he had just drank out of. He hit the ground with a yelp, the repeated roars of the female echoing in his ears as she continued to shriek her way across the valley.

"I am going to find out who that was, and I am going to bite them," he announced.

"I'll join you," Lily growled, slinking down to the ground. "Are you okay?"

"It takes more than a fall to harm me," Gold said proudly.

"You have mud on your face," Lily observed before setting off on paw. Gold trailed behind, stopping every few moments to paw at his face. He didn't _feel_ any mud…

"No I do not," he said belatedly as they approached the plateau. Other light wings were walking or flying in the same direction around them, most just as annoyed as he was.

"You definitely do," Lily retorted without looking back. "That's Diora, I think." She was staring at the female who had landed on the ground in front of the plateau, the one everybody was approaching.

"Now I know who I am going to bite," Gold murmured, ignoring her insistence that he had mud anywhere. She was just messing with him, and he was not going to fall for it again. Not when she had not even looked back to check before assuring him it was still there.

"She is Pearl's Dam, and a disgusting waste of breath," Lily huffed. "Crystal was telling me about her the other day. She is also infatuated with Claw, so that is probably what this is about."

"We have not found Claw yet," Diora proclaimed. "We are not trying hard enough! I am going to organize the searches from here on out, until we locate him."

"You are stealing my idea!" Cressa howled indignantly, leaping out to confront Diora. "I said we need someone to lead until we get Claw back. You cannot just take that spot, one of his mates should have it."

"I did not hear you saying this," Diora shot back, tossing her head dismissively. "Besides, if you were talking about taking his power for yourself, you clearly do not care about getting him back. I care more, so I will organize things!"

"Shut your mouth and sit down," Cressa roared, spinning to slap Diora with her tail in a move Gold could not help but judge as hilariously inefficient and stupid. Diora bit down on her tail, teeth out, and Cressa yelped.

It only devolved from there, much to his delight. Cressa shrieked and slapped her tail down, pulling Diora's face down with it. Diora let go when her chin hit the ground, snarling all the while, and leaped onto Cressa's back. Cressa lurched around, smacked Diora into a rock by falling over, and repeatedly hit Diora with her wings. Neither was fighting to kill, and their claws weren't even out, but they were hissing up a storm. Well, _another_ storm.

"I am not stepping in," Lily said primly, a sly grin tugging at the corners of her face. "Let them beat each other senseless."

"Perfect," Gold sighed, sitting back and getting comfortable. The vast majority of the crowd seemed paralyzed by indecision, and the male responsible for stopping such fights was dead, so nobody _else_ was going to step in.

Cressa, who had managed to turn over and pin Diora, began head-butting her, ramming her forehead into the other female's neck and chin, all the while thumping her with every available limb in a delightfully senseless series of attacks that would have had any serious combatant laughing in disbelief.

Diora, though, was not a serious combatant. She shoved up and tried to push Diora off, holding her paws up to fend her off, and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Cressa actually looked disoriented by the unceasing noise-

A female leaped in and tried to stop the fight, much to Gold's surprise, but she was treated with as much respect as the combatants had for each other, getting tailwhipped by _both_ of them. She snarled and said something that Diora's screeching drowned out, and then leaped into the fray in earnest, taking their heads in her paws and doing her best to smack them together. It didn't work, mostly because of the wings and paws flailing at her whenever she leaned in to get any leverage.

Cressa abruptly rolled off of Diora, snarled at her, and turned on the third combatant, lunging at her. Diora took the opportunity to flee to the top of the plateau. "We should…"

She panted, looking down at the tussle that she had just escaped. "Search. Search for Claw."

"Stop that!" Cressa howled, abandoning the third female - who fled the moment she was free of the fight, probably regretting ever sticking her nose in - and firing a small shot at Diora.

"You stop it!" Diora snarled, staggering with the blast. "I want him back, you do not, but that does not mean you get to stop us!"

"It is not about that!" Cressa exclaimed. "It is about who leads while he is gone!"

"Not you!" Diora snarled. "Who is with me?"

A small minority of the crowd raised their voices in agreement; Gold looked over, and from what he could see, it was mostly Claw's mates. The ones most worried for him, if he had to guess.

"Who is with _me_ in wanting him back but also wanting someone who is not named Diora to take charge?" Cressa asked.

Another small group roared, and Gold suspected some of the same people had raised their voices for both females.

"Who just wants him back?" someone else cried out.

The vast majority of the pack howled, roared, or otherwise voiced their support. It was a hesitant, staggered wave of noise, but a loud one for that. Gold covered his ears, annoyed. He had done a good thing in arranging Claw's death, and the idiots who wanted him back were not going to convince him otherwise, but he was surprised to hear so many so adamant about wanting him back.

He looked to the side, and noticed that Lily looked physically sickened by the noise. His protective instincts rose, and though he was surprised by her sudden susceptibility to the noise, he knew what to do. "We can go," he suggested, putting a wing over her.

"Yes," she growled, shaking herself and turning her back on the gathering of the pack. "We should. At least for now."

"Well, they will all be out searching, so it is not like we will be coming back," he reasoned. "And I do not know about you, but if Diora does this again tomorrow I am just going to ignore her screeching."

"No, I don't mean leaving _this,_ " Lily stressed.

"But we are walking away," Gold noted.

"Because they're obnoxious," she growled. "You were right, I do not want to protect everyone. Just the people I care about. And pretty much everybody just said they want Claw back."

"So… what _do_ you mean?" he asked. He wasn't sure he liked where this was heading…

"We're striking out on our own," she confirmed. "You, me, Pyre, and the people we care enough about to bring with us. Everyone else can stay here and bicker and wish Claw was back. We'll go make our own pack without all of these stupid rules and stupid people who like them."

O-O-O-O-O

By nightfall, the plan had been made, and all that was left was to execute it.

Gold crept through the darkness, alert despite himself. He would much rather be sleeping, but seducing defectors to join his and Lily's own little pack was almost worth missing some sleep.

He snuck up on the rock he was aiming for, creeping softly, and considered his options. Would a paw to the nose bother Liona enough to wake her, or would a growl work better? He-

Murmuring voices in front of him made him even warier than he already was, and he crept forward like a silent shadow.

"It is not like anyone will know," Cedar murmured, lurking beside the rock Liona and Danda shared with their parents. "Come on, it is just looking at the stars. I promise I am not going to ask for anything else."

"Quiet, you will wake Danda," Liona hissed warily. "I cannot, she will notice if I am gone, and she will tell tales we cannot disprove."

"Then we will tell worse tales about her and Ash, and she will regret it," Cedar huffed. "At least come with me to argue about it out of earshot."

Gold shook his head, glad he was past that stage of courting and onto the stage where his female was as enthusiastic as he was most of the time. Still, he could not deny that Cedar's struggles here were both entertaining and useful. "Hey!" he hissed.

Cedar flinched, and Liona squeaked in fright.

"You two!" Gold said. "Wake Danda and bring her! It is urgent!" He met Cedar's eyes, and then Liona's.

O-O-O-O-O

Ash snored quite heavily, and his parents slept like the dead. Gold didn't bother with stealth, brazenly leaping up onto the fledgling male's rock, putting a paw to his nose until he choked, and weathering the silent assault that followed.

"You know I hate that," Ash groaned as they flew away from his rock. "What prank is it tonight?"

"A huge one that Danda is in on," Gold said, semi-truthfully. "Follow me."

O-O-O-O-O

Gold crept forward warily, internally debating himself.

On the one side, independence and pride. On the other, guilt. He wasn't used to the latter, but it was hitting him hard whenever he thought about ignoring this last pair of light wings. Sure, their presence at this clandestine meeting he and Lily were arranging would be grating. Sure, if they went for it, they would be along for the long haul.

But Lily had not hesitated to say that Pina deserved the offer, and had mentioned his own parents before he even thought of them. He felt bad about that, and knew he would feel worse about leaving without even offering to take them.

So, he screwed up his courage and leaped up onto their rock for the first time since that mandatory visit Lily had forced on him right after they became mates. "Wake up," he huffed-

Only to see that they weren't there. It took him a surprisingly long time to process that, and the conclusion he came to was mortifying, if only because he had just talked himself into not giving up.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold lingered on the overly large ledge, waiting for Lily to deliver the message he had wimped out of giving himself.

"That has got to be embarrassing," Mist mused. "Having to send someone to interrupt your parents while they are trying to make a sibling for you."

"Not as embarrassing as going himself," Cedar said.

"Thank you, Cedar," Gold purred, ignoring the muffled squawk of indignation coming from a nearby ledge. Why had he not thought to check for anyone out here prior to now? He had assumed that the mood in the valley was too dark and uncertain for anyone to be spending all night on the ledges. Lily had too, which was a small consolation.

It did not help that there were so many people on this larger ledge, either. He looked around, mentally naming each of the light wings lurking in waiting.

He had brought Cedar, Liona, Danda, and Ash. Lily, in the meantime, had been far more efficient. Pina, Crystal and Pearl all stood together, having been gathered from the caves. Root and Mist made five for Lily, and if he counted his parents, who she was even now bringing over, she had brought seven to his four. It would have been five to his six, if not for his terrible luck.

Lily landed on the crowded ledge, and his parents followed. He squirmed uncomfortably and tried not to look at them too closely. Becoming an adult and having his own mate had done nothing for his dislike for thinking about them that way.

"Okay, we're all here," she declared. "I'm going to keep this short, because I know there will be a lot of questions, and we want to be done here shortly, so everyone can get some rest."

It spoke well of the group that they had assembled that nobody interrupted; someone would have by now, with most of the pack. Even Cedar was quiet, standing close to Liona and examining the other light wings curiously.

"I am sick and tired of this pack," Lily said without any further setup. "Tired of the customs, tired of the people, tired of the squabbles about Claw. I don't want him to come back, and I don't want to wait here until he does. Gold and I have found a guide who is going to take us deep into the woods and teach us how to make a good home there, and we are going to make our own pack."

Gold nodded when some of his friends looked to him, and stood tall when his Dam stared incredulously. "I would rather be on my own than under Claw, if he even comes back," he said. "And since I _cannot_ follow him, and _cannot_ fight him, it is not like any of my promises hold." Even if he cared about that, which he didn't.

"We're going in secret, and we're going far enough away that we won't be found," Lily continued. "We are leaving in part to get away from some of the people here, so the invitation to come with us is only being extended to you, and if you can make a case for them, close family of yours. You are people who I or Gold think would make this new pack work without bringing a bunch of stupid preconceptions and attitudes."

"Like the ones Cressa, Diora, and a lot of other people showed today," Gold said, giving an example.

"So?" Lily paused, looking at each of them in turn. "We are going, and we would like to not go on our own? It would not be this valley, but we can find a new place and make it good. We can make the rules, we can leave all of this stupidity behind."

"What about mates?" Mist asked. "Even if everyone here goes, there will not be a balance."

"No, and we're not having an alpha like Claw, so if you go without one you will have few choices," Lily admitted. "But with us, _not_ having a mate will be a choice. It is not around here. And if that bothers you, later you can come back here. It is not as if you will forget the way."

"I, for one, was in the moment I heard the idea," Crystal said. "Pearl?"

"Claw will not be able to follow?" Pearl asked timidly.

"No, and if he did, we would protect you from him," Lily said boldly. Gold knew it was a moot point, but nobody else did, and Pearl needed the reassurance, which was obviously why she had said it. "You would be part of our pack, not his, free to take a mate or not as you wish. And Diora is _not_ coming, either."

"I want to," Pearl whispered, her eyes wide. "I do. I will come."

"Well, I was in the moment you said I could choose to not have a mate, or have one, as I wished," Mist said. "Definitely."

They were the easy ones, the ones Lily had said would probably choose immediately. Gold looked around, waiting for the next person to speak, and studiously avoided looking at his parents. He didn't know which way they would go, and he didn't know which way he wanted them to go, either.

"I have learned things that make me less inclined to stay with Claw than I might have been once," Pina said softly, looking at Pearl. "So long as there is to be no punishment for abandoning a mate in this new pack, I think I would go."

"Not for abandoning him, he abandoned you first," Lily reasoned. "We can all decide on our rules once we are out there, everyone will get a voice."

Liona whispered something in Cedar's ear, and he nodded, but neither said anything. Gold caught Danda looking, and flicked his ears at her dismissively, hoping to provoke her into saying something.

But Root spoke first. "I am not leaving," he said firmly. "There are things to do here, and I do not want to just abandon everyone else."

"That is your choice," Mist huffed, making clear that she didn't care. "Go ahead."

"That's fine, Root," Lily said kindly. "You will not mention this to anyone until we have left, at least?"

"I do not want anyone to go, but I am not going to sabotage you," Root confirmed. "I want to make this pack better, but I understand if you do not have the patience."

"I don't, not after seeing how many people are desperate for Claw to return," Lily growled. "Not after realizing that Diora and Cressa are the two most vocal options for our leadership in the meantime."

Not after realizing that she couldn't put herself or him in the running, Gold silently added to the list. In a new pack, nobody would be around to complain if they took charge, though in a new pack they might not even really have to take charge at all, which he would prefer anyway. Making their own group neatly cut out not only the problems of this pack, but also a lot of the root causes.

"We would like to come along," Cedar announced. "Liona and I. We will be free to choose each other as mates as soon as we go?"

"You are still fledglings," Lily objected. "Close to adults, but not physically there yet. I'm not sure I'm comfortable saying you can be mates before being adults, especially since I know you have only just started looking at each other that way."

"I would like to go anyway," Liona said quietly. "We can be mates once we are of age?"

"I'm not stopping that," Lily agreed.

"That is fine, then," Cedar conceded.

"Then I am _not_ going," Danda hummed. "But I am glad to see you go, Liona. Have fun. Ash?"

"I am not going," Ash said, staring right at Danda.

Lily huffed and shook her head, and Gold had to give her credit. She _had_ predicted that either Liona or Danda would choose the opposite of their sister just to get some distance, and he did not need it explained to him that the males interested in them would follow their second tails. He was glad they were getting Cedar and Liona; Cedar was more fun than Ash, even if he was also more annoying.

Everyone had given their decisions… except for his parents. He looked to them.

"I'm doing whatever my mate is doing," his Sire said, spinelessly passing over the decision. Gold sighed, glad he had escaped the trap of being like that.

"I will be sad to see you go, son," his Dam said calmly. "Be sure to come back and visit."

Gold nodded, feeling as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders. "I will, on occasion," he promised. "Maybe once a season-cycle, or something."

"So more often than you have been since taking a mate?" his Dam said teasingly. "This is good."

"That is everyone," Lily hummed. "Those of you who said no, we bear you no ill will, and thank you for not telling anyone of this. Those of you who said yes, is there anyone you would suggest?"

"I am not taking my parents," Crystal said coldly. "My Dam and I do not see eye to eye on anything nowadays, and bringing her would be pointless. She has the kind of rotted thinking we are leaving to get away from."

"Same," Pearl murmured.

"My parents would not want to go," Cedar snorted. "And like Gold said, we can come back to visit on occasion."

The other fledglings who were going nodded at that; Gold wasn't surprised to see that they were willing to leave. It was not as if they would never see their parents again, after all, and growing up meant striking out on their own. Except maybe for Root, given how clingy his Dam was, and he was not leaving anyway.

"I have a friend, but she would not want to travel with a fledgling," Pina said. "So maybe a few season-cycles from now, but not today. When are we leaving?"

"Do not say," Root huffed before Lily could open her mouth. "Let the rest of us leave first. No point in telling us things we cannot repeat and do not need to know."

That was the signal for those who had opted out to leave; Gold waved his tail at his parents as they left, glad they were headed back to the valley and not to another ledge. Once those who were leaving were out of earshot, he cleared his throat with a rumble.

"Tomorrow night," he said. "Spend your morning preparing, and sneak out to the forest on some pretense in the afternoon. Meet us on the far shore just after nightfall. We will be spending most of the night walking, so be ready for that."

"Why walking?" Mist asked. "Flying is faster."

"Many reasons," he said vaguely. "You will see when we get started. " He _could_ say they were walking to avoid being seen, or to enjoy the scenery, or any of a number of explanations, but messing with Mist was more fun. He was glad she was going, too. Her and Crystal; he would have plenty of targets to annoy if he ever got bored.

"The far shore." Cedar stuck his tail in that direction. "We meet there?"

"Yes," Lily hummed. "Tell nobody the specifics, not even your parents."

"But do at least leave on good terms," Pina added.

"Got it," Cedar rumbled. "Now, if there is nothing else, I want to go back to sleep."

Gold nodded in agreement; they had a long day and night in front of them. Sleeping was not only preferable, it was mandatory. Just the way he liked it.

O-O-O-O-O

The valley was once again unusually vacant. Gold had seen the search parties go, some organized and some not, so he knew _why_ , but that did not stop it from feeling weird. Like he was seeing a preview of how it would be once his group had left for real.

Lily flew beside him as they circled idly, her face and movements pensive, like she was uncertain of her next flap, let alone whatever was really bothering her.

"I will make you look good tonight if you tell me what is on your mind," he bargained.

"And if I do not?" Lily asked, amused.

"I will complain about you brooding and compare you to a moody fledgling," he threatened.

"The horror," she said sarcastically. "I suppose I have no choice. I was thinking that you have corrupted me."

"And you are only now realizing that?" he said with a smirk, feeling immensely proud. "Half the things we have done, I expected to be slapped for proposing."

"Not like that," she said, purring quietly. "With this. I _could_ fix the pack as it is."

"It would be hard and frustrating and maybe dangerous," he said.

"Yes, but I could do it," she retorted. "Despite that. It would take a long time, and I would have to focus on just that for a while. I would make them all think, make them all be better, take them by the scruff of their necks and drag them to something better, whining and complaining all the way."

"That sounds terrible," he said honestly.

"It does, and yesterday I found that I just did not feel like bothering," she admitted. "Maybe it is laziness, or maybe it is me being selfish, but I just do not want to do it. Not when we can leave with the people I do not have to drag into the right way of thinking. We made this mess, and I am leaving without even trying to clean it up."

"No," Gold objected, "Claw made this mess. You do not owe the pack anything, and if you did, I would say Claw's disappearance is enough. But you owe _me_ something."

"What is that?" she asked, looking over at him.

"I want your attention, and I do not want to share it with a bunch of idiots who will complain about you fixing them," he said bluntly. "You do not want to share me with other females? Well, I do not want to share you with them." He nodded down at the valley, though it was mostly empty, which kind of undermined his point.

"I certainly cannot complain if that is the trade," she huffed. "So, I am being selfish. You have corrupted me."

"Good," he said. "Now, since you are being corrupted, how would you like…" He wracked his mind for a suitably dirty proposition, something enough to distract her through pure shock.

"Don't finish that thought," she growled. "Or I will bite you somewhere unpleasant."

"Oh, good," he sighed. "I am glad to know my most pleasing parts are safe." He dodged preemptively, and easily avoided the stinging tail-slap she sent his way.

"Not what I meant," Lily growled. "Unpleasant for you."

"So you _are_ planning on putting your mouth on that part of me?" Gold asked slyly, turning his tail and fleeing. "There are better things to do with that!"

"I'll bite it off," Lily cried out, her words undercut by a laughing rumble she couldn't hold back. Gold flew in erratic loops, keeping out of her reach.

"But you would regret that!" he barked. "Very much!"

"So would you!" She cut across his latest loop, and he quickly changed tactics, spinning to grab her. His hind paws wrapped around her tail, and he clutched one of her front paws with his. She wisely folded her wings and dropped, rather than straining them trying to pull his weight, and slipped out of his grasp.

"Stop it," she laughed. "Fine, no biting."

"I have triumphed over my mate, and am thus dominant and superior!" Gold loudly proclaimed, roaring for the mostly empty valley to hear. He leveled out, opening his wings once more, and looked back.

Lily's eyes had narrowed, and she was flying fast. Right at him. He bolted.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold limped along, wondering whether his mate would object to him riding her back for a while. Sure, she was hardly strong enough to carry him for any length of time without tiring out, but she owed him. She had put the many needle-like holes in his paw that were hobbling him now, after all.

"I didn't bite you that hard," Lily sighed, catching his thoughts without even needing him to voice them.

"You have sharp teeth, and sand is not good for wounds," he whined piteously.

"I'll lick it better once we get into the forest, but other than that you are on your own," she rumbled. "Consider it a lesson in provoking me."

"The lesson I learned was 'never provoke my vindictive mate without having an escape plan and a head start,' was that what you meant to teach?" He leaped over a small sand dune, just so she didn't think he was seriously hurting. Her teeth had hurt, for sure, but it was a shallow wound. He would milk it for all it was worth, of course, but only so long as she knew he was doing so. The game could be played even when both knew it was a game.

"Yes," Lily said blandly, though the twinkle in her eyes betrayed her amusement. Gold wasn't sure if he was getting better at reading her, or if she was intentionally letting such things through, but either way he was glad to have such hints. Even if he did have to think twice about whether or not they were intentional, and thus whether he was being played with while thinking himself clever.

And wasn't that a thrill in itself? He hummed thoughtfully as they approached the small gathering. Not everyone was present, hence there being no need to fly all the way to the group. Cedar and Liona had yet to arrive, and Pyre was not waiting with the rest.

Those who were there were feigning nonchalance. Pina lay near the tideline, watching the sea, while Mist and Crystal spoke casually, their tails buried in the sand. Pearl looked on from nearby, far more jittery than anyone else present, but at least making an effort to seem innocent. It would take at least an intimidating growl to make her talk, not just a glare.

Two light wings flew overhead, landing with bounding leaps to either side of him and Lily. "Beat you here," Cedar crowed, launching himself into the midst of the gathering. Liona followed behind, only slightly less enthusiastic.

"Congratulations, you have managed to make a moment's flight when given a whole day," Mist said dryly. "Truly, you are quick beyond all reckoning."

"I am going to quote you," Cedar said proudly.

"And Liona will too, once you start mating," Gold laughed.

"We are all here," Lily barked, gathering their attention before the back and forth could devolve. None too soon, either; Cedar looked ready to pounce. Liona, for her part, seemed equal parts embarrassed and amused. "Let's get moving."

"Sounds good," Crystal huffed. "Where are we headed?"

"Follow me." Lily walked away from the water, into the treeline. Gold ran for a short distance to catch up, and settled into an easy gait by her side.

"You ran on your paw," Lily murmured.

Gold growled in annoyance. He had forgotten about that, and now he wouldn't be able to use it as leverage. "Will you still lick it better, at least?" he asked.

"If you're good," she replied.

A pale presence flickering through the trees in front of them distracted him, and he resolved to get her back later. They would have all night.

"We are going deep into the forests, far from the valley, to settle in a new place and live there," Lily intoned, glancing back at the six light wings following along. "We need someone who knows how to _do_ all of that, and I happen to know one such dragon."

Pyre stepped out from a dark thicket, his empty wing arms spread wide. Several of those behind Gold gasped in shock, and he distinctly heard someone gag.

"I swear I remember one of Claw's mates going on about a wingless male traitor in the mountains," Mist huffed. "I guess she was not crazy."

"This is Pyre, everyone," Lily said proudly. "He's always been around, he just wasn't allowed into the valley."

"Why?" Cedar asked skeptically.

"The previous alpha blamed me for something I was not responsible for in any meaningful way," Pyre huffed.

Gold nodded sagely, pretending he had any idea what Pyre was talking about. Of all the things the older dragon spoke of, his past was one of the few thorny issues left up to the imagination. It seemed that was going to change, at least a little.

"But we can talk about that on the way," Pyre concluded. "If we must. Right now, the priority is putting as much distance between us and the valley as possible. Tell me, how many of you can run?"

"We will be running?" Pearl asked timidly.

"Well, you did not expect to get anywhere quickly by just walking, did you?" Pyre asked with a toothy grin. "Come on, surely you can outlast a light wing ten times your age."

Gold cast Lily a meaningful look, and she winced. Maybe his leverage was still good after all.

The group set out at a trot, everyone following along as Pyre elaborated on _how_ they would be running. Gold drifted to the back of the group, so as to watch the shapely behinds of the many females they were bringing along, and chanced a look behind.

The moon was rising, the mountains looming in the distance, and the pack was sleeping off another day of fruitless searching for a dead dragon. Behind him was a myriad of annoying customs and problems.

Ahead, was a very appealing sight, led by his mate, and plenty of possibility. He had to look away, lest his running be impeded even more before they even began.


	27. Gold - Cunning (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: Part eight of Gold's mini-series, we're well off the beaten trail now.**

* * *

"My paws are sore," Gold called out.

"My chest aches," Pearl replied, walking behind him.

"I tripped on a stick," Cedar supplied.

"I tripped on Cedar," Liona added with a giggle.

"I was blinded by sappy affection and ran into a tree," Mist snorted.

"My wings ache," Crystal complained, breaking the chain of follow-up complaints.

"I have dirt between my claws," Pina added seriously, shaking her left front paw with every other step.

"I have a headache," Lily growled, rounding them out.

"And yet, we are still walking," Pyre retorted, looking back at the group but never stopping his relentless trek forward. "No rest yet. The sun has not set."

"My sun has set," Cedar grumbled.

"What does that even mean?" Mist asked.

"That I am too tired and sore to come up with understandable complaints," Cedar hummed. "And that if I had a sun, it would have already set by now. In fact, it would set right after noon, and stay down until right before noon. Daytime is overrated."

"Why have any day at all, if you are going that far?" Gold asked. It was a ridiculous idea, of course, but appealing all the same. Having a rock-solid excuse to sleep nine-tenths of every day-night cycle, and even having the darkness to do it in undisturbed, sounded especially nice now. It had been half a moon-cycle since they began this endless walk, and his paws were always sore.

"Liona looks prettier in the sunlight," Cedar said loyally.

"Do you want me to bring up a fish?" Mist asked. "Because that is how you will get one out of me. Just keep that sort of thing up."

The banter continued as they walked, staving off boredom and discomfort both. That had to be why Pyre and Lily allowed such complaints; Gold had been given ample time to notice that serious whining did not start so easily when little things were taking all the attention, but he suspected such a concept had been known to his mate before the end of the first night's trek. She certainly did not try to stop it, though she did not contribute much, either.

Gold, for his part, had not been lying when he claimed his paws were sore, so he walked gingerly, following Lily and Pyre as they picked the easiest path through the forest. Thickets of thorns were avoided, hills and valleys crossed, infinitely many trees woven through, and all the while the group was headed nowhere except _away_.

When the shadows lengthened enough that Pyre called a halt for the night, Gold flopped onto his side where he stood, flexing his paws and groaning dramatically. All around him, others settled down with more dignity, but what did he care for that? Taking weight off his paws and looking obviously exhausted were more important goals.

"Not it!" he called out, remembering _why_ he wanted to look exhausted.

"Not this again," Pina huffed. "We agreed to do a rotation, Gold."

"And it is not my go even by that," he said blithely. "But-"

"Not it!" Cedar barked, likely remembering that it was his evening to secure fish for the rest of them.

"No, that is not how this works," Mist said dismissively. "Nobody play into their trick, this is not decided by who says 'not it' last."

Lily huffed. "Do not think none of us heard you saying 'not it' while claiming it did not matter. Hedging your bets makes your words fall flat."

"What? Not it!" Pearl glared at Mist, as well she should; she had been the one to lose the game last night.

"I will go, if you are all too exhausted to bother," Pyre said with a sly grin. "Though you all know how long it takes me to fish for so many, so you will be waiting for a while."

"Ugh, nobody wants that," Crystal groaned. "Come on, Liona, we can do tonight."

Gold held in a purr as Liona agreed, and the two females left in the direction of the shore. His ploy had worked-

"You have just been moved to tomorrow morning's fish-gathering duty," Lily said, coming up behind him. She did not look amused. "I don't like you making chaos where we could have a nice, simple rotation."

"But chaos is the only entertainment most of them have," Gold argued back, not all that surprised that she had remembered who started tonight's cascade of responsibility-avoiding light wings. "I did all of those bored people a favor, really. Besides, you do not have the authority to make me fish tomorrow."

"I have the authority to volunteer myself and then publicly ask you to help me," she retorted. "So either you make up for this, or you look bad in front of everyone else."

"Fine, fine," Gold acquiesced, lessening her victory by pretending he was not really giving up anything. "I can do that. Anyway, what is Pyre up to?"

"He is busy staring at your back and wondering what I see in you," Lily quipped.

Gold turned far enough to see that Pyre was saying something to Crystal, not looking at him at all. "Liar," he said. "Since you can punish me for causing trouble, does that mean I can punish you for lying?"

"That would be fair," Lily admitted. "What is your proposed punishment?"

"Wait until we get some time alone and find out," Gold hummed. He was tired, they all were, but he was not about to let a little exhaustion get in the way of enjoying himself. They could sneak away once everyone had gone to sleep. Finding isolated places was almost too easy now that there were only seven light wings to avoid.

"Mmm," Lily rumbled, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "You know, I find myself looking forward to finding out what twisted thing you have in mind."

"And that is why you are perfect," he hummed. Not just because she had fully embraced a willingness to experiment in mating that he had never witnessed, in all his time spent spying on mated pairs at the ledges. It was not _only_ that, anyway. It was also the trust she gave him, to be able to hear things like that as he meant them, not as someone like Claw might have. She thought well of him.

"Flattery will get you somewhere, but no faster than you were already going in that direction," Lily chided. "We're not wandering off before everyone is sleeping."

"I am still hungry," he reminded her. "I do not want to wander off yet." They would be waiting some time yet, because while they were walking parallel to the shore, they were not close to it, and that meant Crystal and Liona would be a while.

Lily settled down beside him, her tail on his. "Wake me when they get back," she murmured, her eyes slowly closing.

Gold squirmed uncomfortably, her body heat warming him, but not as much as the heat rushing to certain parts of him of its own accord. This was going to be a _long_ wait...

O-O-O-O-O

"We are a ways out, now," Pyre said, setting aside the last fish he had been brought. His words had the sound of a beginning, a request for attention, and Gold obligingly looked over at him. It was fully dark, and Pyre lay in one of the many fragmented beams of moonlight peeking through the trees. His face was illuminated, and part of his neck, but his body was shadowed, making him look like a piece of a dragon, not a whole one. Even more than usual, anyway.

"Far enough to start looking for a place to claim?" Crystal asked.

"Not quite, but we are reaching a distance where if we find something remarkable, we do not have to worry about distance making it unsuitable," Pyre clarified. "Every day we continue forward we widen the gap, but we are at the tipping point between unacceptably close, and only uncomfortably close."

"Point taken," Lily murmured. "What are we looking for?"

"I don't know, not for certain," Pyre admitted. "A stable source of fresh water is preferable, and most of the ponds we have found so far are seasonal. We want something permanent, a stream or river would be best. We also want hills or mountains to make good homes for shelter. Past that, whatever we find that is useful."

"We have not come across any of those things besides hills," Liona noted. "Will there be more further out?"

"That is the thing, we do not know," Crystal explained. "Right? We could find a dozen rivers tomorrow, or none no matter how far we go."

"That is correct, yes," Pyre agreed. "But that can only be determined by pressing forward."

"And something else needs to be brought up," Lily added, neatly taking the initiative. "We need to talk about what form our pack will take once we do settle down."

"We did leave for a reason," Crystal mused.

"A good reason," Pearl echoed quietly. Everything she did was quiet, and Gold wasn't sure whether that was because of how she had left with them, or because of what had happened to her that made her want to leave. Crystal had taken the other female under her wing, but that didn't seem to be _doing_ much.

"This should be interesting," Mist hummed. "So, mates."

"That was not the _first_ thing I was hoping to decide on," Lily said ruefully. "But sure, let's do that first. I'd like to start by confirming that currently mated pairs are in no way necessarily separated by us leaving."

"Like I would let that happen," Gold huffed. He got a happy look from Lily in return, and knew it had been the right thing to say. The true thing, too; of all the females available, Lily was by far the best. He would claim her without a heartbeat's hesitation.

"But what about us?" Crystal demanded.

"Except for you three," Lily acknowledged, looking at Crystal, Pina, and Pearl, "you are definitely not mated to Claw anymore. I meant… well, just me and Gold." She shrugged her wings.

"It's understandable to want to secure your own ties before addressing anything else," Pyre said. "But I think Mist means how mating will function going forward?" He looked to Mist.

"That," Mist confirmed. "I want to know who I can be with, who I cannot be with, how I can be with them, and what happens if I do not want to be with anyone."

"Right," Lily rumbled. "Obviously, we will have to change some things around from how the valley handled it."

"Obviously," Pina agreed. "For one, the alpha should not have the ability to claim any unmated female."

"Definitely not," Crystal agreed. "And we do not even have an alpha."

"But we will have one, will we not?" Liona asked. "Do we need one?"

"That was what I wanted to bring up first," Lily huffed. "I don't think we need an alpha so long as we are such a small group. There are few enough of us that if something needs to be decided, we can just discuss it and then do what we agree on."

"And if we need an alpha later, we can pick one then," Mist said. "No need to think about that now."

"Right." Lily nodded. "So no alpha."

"Meaning no male who snatches up all the unmated females," Mist hummed. "Good. If a female wants to not have a mate, she should be able to. No forcing her to choose a male when she becomes an adult."

"Drop that whole concept," Lily suggested. "When fledglings become adults, they get the power to choose. If two adults say they are mates and announce it, then they are mates. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I like that," Crystal hummed.

"I do not," Mist growled.

Gold held in a laugh, not wanting to attract his mate's ire. It had all been going far too well, they were overdue an actual argument, not just people agreeing with each other all the time. He was just glad it wasn't him starting said argument.

"Why not?" Pearl asked. "I do…"

"Because she said two adults," Mist clarified. "It only makes sense that males should be able to take multiple mates if they wish. Females too, but that is not likely to happen here given we outnumber the males three to one. Claw kept that privilege to himself, but we do not have an alpha."

"Why would anyone need several mates?" Lily asked. "That was just Claw being greedy, and we all know how that ended up."

Gold looked from his mate to Mist, and then back again. He wondered if it would be smarter to speak up, or to let this play out. He wasn't sure which side he would support if he did speak, so he decided to keep his mouth shut until he knew.

"No," Mist retorted, "Claw was bad because he used and abused his power. The idea of a male having two or more mates is not terrible by itself, and it is the only way everyone who wants a mate can have one with how unbalanced we are."

"If I might add some context," Pyre interjected, "the system of the alpha having many mates was put into place recently, by the alpha before Claw. It was an emergency measure to address a similar lack of balance in genders. Prior to that, having two or more mates was not an option at all."

"So it should not be now," Lily concluded.

"No, he is saying that it was created to address the same problem we are facing now," Mist countered. "That means he thinks it should be allowed here too. Right, Pyre?"

"I am not taking a side here," Pyre rumbled. "I am providing more information."

Gold shook his head, hearing the underlying message. Pyre, as far as he could tell, had absolutely no interest in taking another mate. That would mean whatever this little pack decided, it wouldn't affect him directly. He _was_ neutral in this, as much as anyone could be.

But what about everyone else? He couldn't tell what the others thought of this little debate between Mist and Lily; it was possible they didn't have strong opinions either way, or were waiting for the choice to become clear, like he was.

"It would not work, anyway," Lily grumbled. "Tell me how it would work in practice, and maybe I will see why you want it."

"In practice?" Mist shrugged her wings. "A male takes a mate. They are happy. Then another female wants that male. She makes friends with the first female, and the male, and if all three agree, then she is also his mate. Beyond that, it is up to them what all of that means."

"And if the male's first mate doesn't want to share?" Lily asked, phrasing it as a hypothetical instead of just speaking for herself.

"Well, then, it will not happen," Mist said simply. "I am not talking about forcing other females out, or anything like that. All of this is voluntary, not expected or required. But I want the option open and acknowledged. It makes no sense to forbid it outright."

Gold looked at Lily, expecting a scathing retort that somehow pulled apart that proposal. He could feel the others all looking to Lily, too.

Instead of sarcasm or condescension, he saw genuine surprise. "I don't see any obvious flaws in that," she admitted. "Except maybe for it putting strain on the mated pair if the male wants another mate, and the female does not like that."

"Well, they should have discussed that before becoming mated in the first place," Mist said dismissively. "Like I said, if it is an open _option_ , then whether or not one's first mate is up for such a thing would be talked about beforepaw. I do not expect everyone, or even most pairings, to be comfortable with such a thing."

Lily looked to Gold, and he shrugged his wings at her, not betraying his thoughts on the matter. Mostly because they were still flying around in his head, set into motion by the proposal Mist had set out, and not yet settled. At the moment, he wasn't going to get excited; the way they were talking about meant Lily had to agree, and he had already _tried_ that, back when Pearl needed some good times.

But he was definitely going to bring this up afterward and find out what she thought about it now, even if that answer was all but assured. And a small chance was better than none at all…

"I, for one, do not plan to ever get involved in such a thing," Crystal said dismissively. "But if you want to do it, go ahead."

"Let's see what everyone thinks," Pyre offered. "I do not have an opinion either way. Crystal approves. Pearl?"

"I do not want that…" Pearl shook her head. "Now. For myself. I agree with Crystal, it is okay if other people do it."

"You all know I am for it, even though I do not see any males I would want anyway," Mist said, casting Cedar an unfriendly look. "More choice is better."

Cedar and Liona voiced very much the same approval, not wanting it for themselves, but seeing no fault in the idea. By the time Pina rumbled her approval, Gold was wondering why they were even bothering. There were no unmated females who wanted to do such a thing, and no available males if he assumed Liona would be fiercely defensive of her mate like Lily was.

Everyone looked to him, and he nodded. "I am okay with it, so long as we ensure both mates must agree," he said, reassuring Lily even as he approved of the idea she had initially opposed.

"Looks like we've reached a compromise," Lily hummed, seemingly at peace with their decision. "Good. Now, on to other things…"

Gold did his best to listen, but his full stomach and growing lethargy distracted him. The conversation turned to boring little details like how arguments would be settled if there was no alpha, and he had nothing to add. He didn't _care_ so long as Lily was keeping her paw on what they decided. She was happy with their current dynamic as equals, and wouldn't do anything to upset that, even in her favor. If there were any loopholes to be had, they would be exploitable by him too.

So, instead of listening, he closed his eyes and grunted 'I am with Lily on this one' whenever anyone asked for his opinion. When he heard it, anyway; his name always caught his attention, but if they asked him something without using it, they were out of luck. Especially when he finally dozed off despite their droning voices…

O-O-O-O-O

A paw prodded him, and he reached around to hold it tighter. He couldn't quite feel Lily, she must have rolled over in the night.

"Gross," a voice that was not Lily grunted. The paw pulled away, and then nudged him much more forcefully in the back. "Were you even listening?"

"Yes, totally," Gold murmured, slowly waking up. It was still dark out, and Lily was not near him. Mist was asking him if he had listened…

"So you know we agreed to abandon you here in the middle of the night?" Mist asked seriously.

"Go ahead," he rumbled, unconcerned. "I will catch up."

"And we agreed that Cedar could have Lily as his second mate," Mist continued.

"Lies," he grumbled. "Blatant lies."

"She was very enthusiastic about it," Mist assured him.

He rolled onto his side and cracked open an eye, taking in her blurry form above him. "Are you my consolation prize?"

Mist huffed and took another step back. "Idiot," she grumbled. "No. Lily asked me to wake you."

"Because she cannot do so herself?" he asked, getting to his paws. The woods around him were deserted, oddly enough. He had assumed everyone would sleep where they were.

"Because Pearl wanted to talk to her alone, and she did not want you sleeping alone in the middle of nowhere," Mist explained. "Everyone wandered off after Pyre mentioned that this place might flood if it rains later tonight."

Gold shook himself and glanced up; he couldn't see any stars through the trees, which meant it was cloudy, which made sense. Pyre wouldn't be talking about rain if the skies were clear. "Oh. Where is she?"

"That way," Mist said, pointing her tail in a random direction.

"Really?" Gold asked, wondering whether she was pointing him in the wrong direction. That would be the sort of thing he might do to annoy someone.

"Yes, really," Mist said, walking away with a haughty huff. Gold let his eyes linger on her hindquarters for a little bit, but soon looked away and began walking in the direction he had been given.

A blur of white to his left caught his eye, and he saw Pina, clawing at a tree for some reason. He nodded to her, but she hadn't even noticed him, too busy doing whatever that was.

Two more white shapes threaded through the trees, these heading in his direction, and he sped up. Pearl split from Lily before long, melting away in the dark forest as she headed somewhere.

"Have a good nap?" Lily called out. "We set the future of our little pack while you dozed."

"Good, I slept through the whole thing," Gold chuffed. "It might be important, but it is also boring." He met Lily with a nuzzle and a purr.

"Except for the first part," she said, lying down between two trees. "You were wide awake for that."

"Well, yes," he rumbled, settling into a place across from her. He sensed a talk coming and wanted to look like he was taking it seriously. Lying down on top of her, however tempting, did not project that image… for him, she had made such a thing work in the past. " _That_ was important."

"Even though pretty much everyone said 'not for me' when they approved it," Lily noted. "I don't think anyone is going to go for it right away."

"No, probably not," Gold admitted. Even if she told him 'go ahead' tonight, he would have to start courting someone, since none of the females present actually _wanted_ him at the moment. That promised to be a lot of work for something that might sour relations between himself and his current mate.

"Cedar is busy wooing Liona, and would be sabotaging himself to look at anyone else too closely," Lily continued. She was staring into his eyes, as if trying to see what he really thought about all of this. "Mist doesn't like Cedar, Pearl doesn't seem to be looking for a mate at all, and neither is Pina. I'm not sure what Crystal wants."

"And what about you?" Gold asked, piercing through to the heart of the matter. "Because I am happy either way."

"Are you really?" Lily huffed. "This has not gotten you all excited for chasing and catching another female?"

"That is a lot of effort," he said. "It would be fun, no doubt, but I do not know what I would be aiming for, and I do not want to make you unhappy. Besides, you probably cannot stand the idea." He tilted his head. "So? What do _you_ think?"

"I would have just said no and left it at that back when we were first together," she said softly. "I _did_ say no to something similar before we were officially mates. But you've shown me a lot of fun things I also would have said no to back then… I don't want to change anything right now. Do not take that as a no forever, just for the time being. Let things settle a little first."

Gold, amazed that he was hearing something other than the outright rejection he had expected, nodded happily. "That is fair, more than fair," he purred. "Should I make all of the available females like me just in case?"

"Don't even think about Pina in that way," Lily warned. "Ever. That _is_ a definite no."

"Pearl, Mist, and Crystal, though…" Gold said hopefully.

"I don't want you courting them," Lily admitted. "Not right now. But you could do without antagonizing them on purpose. I want you on good terms with my friends, anyway."

"I can do that." He waggled his ears. "And I would be okay with any or all three of them, so when you feel like trying something new, just tell me."

"This is weird," Lily complained. "Can we stop talking about it now?"

"As you wish, my mate," he said grandly. "Now, as I recall, there was something we were going to do before sleeping…"

O-O-O-O-O

Their group ventured onward the next day, and outwardly it was as if nothing had changed. The days passed slowly, but time seemed to fly despite dragging with every boring moment.

The idea of having more mates did not come up again between him and Lily, and he did his best to put it out of his mind. When she said later, she meant later, and he wasn't going to bring it up again until she did. Until then, he had more than enough adventurous female companionship to be satisfied.

And in the meantime, it didn't look like any of the unmated females along for the trip were going to be changing their status. Cedar and Liona withdrew even more from the rest of the group, sinking deeper into their own little world, if that was possible. Mist was aloof from both himself and Cedar, and Crystal spent her time with her friends, not the males of the group. Nobody looked at Pyre in that way, not even Pina, though Gold suspected there had been a frank conversation on that topic between them at some point. Pyre was far too pragmatic to _not_ address the light wing in the cave, so to speak.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for the journey, and by extension a lot of the uncertainty they labored under, to end.

O-O-O-O-O

"Is it possible we are all hallucinating together?" Lily asked Pyre. Gold could hear them, though he was more interested in the thing they had just come across, hidden beneath the trees.

"There are plants that could do such a thing," Pyre said, taking the question seriously. "But we would see them. There is nothing unusual around here, no fog in the air, nothing in the ocean to taint our food supply. We did not all drink at the last puddle, so it cannot be tainted water we have just come across."

"This hallucination is wet," Gold remarked, sticking his paw in the large river they had just found. "And cold."

"But is it wet and cold for real, or are you imagining it?" Lily asked, ignoring the half-dozen light wings happily wading in the cold, clean water.

"I do not know," Gold rumbled, retreating from the river with a devious plan in mind. He walked up to his mate, who was a few steps from the steep banks, and flicked his tail at her. She gasped as the immensely cold water hit her in the face. "Is that real?"

"Maybe," Lily said with a laugh. "It could be that I am imagining this, too. What is real?"

Gold exchanged a look with Pyre, found agreement in the older male's eyes, and proceeded to shove Lily toward the river. When she tried to step away from him, Pyre stepped in, pushing her in the same direction from the other side.

"Hey, what-" Lily cut off with a shriek as they pushed her over the bank and into the shallows. She landed on her back and flailed around in the surprisingly cold water. It was only a couple of paws deep, so Gold didn't fear for her safety.

In fact, he didn't think she was wet enough yet. "Incoming!" he roared, leaping off the bank to splash down right next to her. He 'struggled' to his paws, splashing as much water as he could onto her face and chest.

"No more questions that make me doubt my own eyes and paws," Gold said.

"This is real," Lily conceded, finally making it to her paws. "I-"

"Look out below!" Pyre called out, following Gold's lead and leaping down to land on Lily's other side. She was swamped again, and caught right in the face by pure chance.

"Ugh, come on!" Lily exclaimed, shaking her head wildly. "Let me get my paws under me, at least."

"You are standing right now," Gold pointed out.

She splashed him in response, and he leapt into the play-fight with a vengeance.

O-O-O-O-O

"We should stay," Mist said that night, and it was not a question. They were all lounging by the shore of the river, resting in the soft grass and enjoying the pleasant sound of rushing water.

Pyre lifted his head to look around. "I saw nothing bad in my look around this afternoon," he said. "I have no objections. There might or might not be prey animals in the area, but it does not matter all that much. We have the ocean, and there are probably fish in this river."

"Do we even need to put it to a vote?" Gold asked lazily. He was lying on his back, his eyes closed, and as far as he was concerned he would be happy to never leave so long as Lily remained by his side and regularly under or on top of him…

"No, but let's get everyone's opinions anyway," Lily snorted.

"But that _is_ a vote," Gold whined. "I say we are staying. Does anyone object?"

The sounds of the river continued uninterrupted, apart from Lily's amused chuckle.

"There, done," Gold hummed, pleased with himself.

"And now, on to the next thing you will not want to do," Pyre rumbled.

"Sleeping?" Gold asked hopefully.

"Close. Making dens to sleep in." Pyre hummed thoughtfully, and Gold heard something dragging in the water, either a tail or a paw. "Yes, it is here."

"What is?" Lily asked, sounding intrigued.

"There is a kind of dirt one finds in places like riverbeds. It is slimy and unpleasant, but when it's spread out and flamed, it makes a sort of stone that is very comfortable to sit on." Something hit the grass with a dirty squelch, and Gold cracked open an eye to see a pile of red-brown mud by Pyre, looking as if he had just clawed it out of the ground, which of course he had.

"To make a good den in a place like this, you first have to find a spot with a hill, then dig it out, then dig up a _lot_ of this dirt and flame it into the inside," Pyre explained. "It is frustrating, dirty, miserable work, but the end result is worth it. A snug little cave that is cool in the hot-season and warm in the cold-season."

"How long does it take to do all of that?" Pearl asked.

"A one-person cave takes about ten days, from start to finish, and then a few more because you don't have enough fire to flame it all at once," Pyre said. "A den for two would be twice as big and twice as much labor, but with twice as many people, so I would say the same except for more time to flame it. We can all work on our own dens at the same time, and all be done soon enough."

An idea occurred to Gold, or more of a resolution, and he hummed thoughtfully. The end result sounded desirable, even as the work to get it was anything but, so of course he wanted to get out of doing it. Sticking the labor all on Lily was not what a strong, caring mate would do - not to mention that she would never let him do that - so he would have to be tricky about things…

He purred evilly and closed his eyes, beginning to plot even as Pyre explained the specifics to the other dragons. He didn't need to hear any of that; he wouldn't be getting a single claw dirty. With some luck, neither would Lily unless she wanted to.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold sighed happily and rubbed his face on Lily's neck before wandering away from her to wash in the river. They had snuck away that morning for the usual reason and were downriver of the rest of their little pack, making dousing himself and cleaning off the obvious remnants easier than usual. He could just jump in the water-

His smug trail of thought was interrupted when he actually _hit_ the water, after bounding off the bank to land in the chest-deep flow of the shallows. He held in what would have been a decidedly embarrassing shriek, and instead let out a whimper as he clambered out of the icy flow.

Lily looked on from where she was cleaning herself the normal way. "You know," she said conversationally, "running water tends to always be cold."

"I remembered that too late," Gold grumbled. He was used to the pond, not the ocean, and he had severely underestimated the combination of the morning chill, going from a hot body to the water, and doing so before certain parts of himself were safely away from the icy flow.

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense…" Lily pawed at her ears and face, closing her eyes to rub over them. "Ready for a day of exploring and looking for a good hill?"

"I was thinking," Gold hummed, remembering his plan. He walked over to her and licked across her face. "You search, I have something else to do."

"And you will not tell me what it is," Lily snorted. "Congratulations, this is your most transparent attempt to get out of labor yet. It is just walking around."

"I _am_ trying to get out of work, but for both of us, and not this part," Gold said cryptically. "You will find out what I am doing tomorrow, and if I have done it well enough we will both be able to laze around all day."

"Really?" Lily opened an eye and stared at him. "And I will like how you accomplished it?"

"You will find it impressive and possibly entertaining in its own right," Gold claimed. He _hoped_ his plans would pan out, otherwise this would fall flat on its face, but what good was trying something if he didn't talk it up first?

"Okay, you can slip out of today's hill search," Lily granted. "I'll find a bunch of good ones and take you around to look at the best ones tonight."

"I did not need your permission… but I appreciate the encouragement." Gold hopped forward, licked her face again, and fled before she could retaliate.

His escape made and expectations established, he set out to get an easy victory to start his day. Cedar was by far the most simple mark for this little scheme, and conveniently in the first place he looked, dunking his head further up the river. Liona was nowhere to be seen, which was even better.

Gold found a nice spot on the bank nearby, pulled a few leaves from a nearby bush, and crumpled them up into little balls. He kept one ball, so small it was hard to move around, under his tail, and the other went into the grass in front of him. They were more or less indistinguishable.

"Cedar!" he barked. "Over here!"

Cedar obligingly waded out of the river and clambered up onto the bank, where he shook himself off; Gold raised a wing and shielded himself from the cold spray.

"Sorry about that," Cedar purred, not sounding very sorry at all. "What is it?"

"I was thinking you would like a chance to impress Liona," Gold hummed. "Care to play a game? You win, I help you look good in front of Liona. You lose, and you…"

"What?" Cedar asked curiously. "It cannot be that big a forfeit, I do not really need your help looking good."

"I did not think that far ahead," Gold lied. "How about… you spend one day digging up dirt for my den, not yours?"

Cedar chuffed agreeably. "I could do that, I do not really mind sleeping on grass for one extra day. But I will win! What is the game?"

Gold motioned downward, drawing Cedar's attention to his paws. "See this leaf ball?" he asked.

Cedar leaned forward and squinted. "Yes? This one?" He poked it with his claw. "It is tiny."

"Right, that one," Gold confirmed. "All you have to do is keep your eyes on it while I move it around. If, when I am done, you can tell me where it is, you win."

"Okay… If we play one practice round first." Cedar sat down and stared avidly at the little leaf ball. "This one does not mean anything."

"Fair enough," Gold conceded. He put a paw over the little grass ball, then slid his other paw over it. He spent a little while shuffling his paws back and forth, pretending to mix it, then quite obviously pressed down a little harder and rolled it under his right paw. "Done. Where is it?"

"Here," Cedar chirped, slapping his paw down on Gold's. The right one, of course; it was meant to be easy this time. It wouldn't do to scare Cedar away before he had lost for real.

"You won our practice round," Gold chuffed, lifting his paw to reveal the fragile little ball. "Ready for the real one?"

"I think you are an idiot to suggest this," Cedar purred smugly. "That was really easy. Has Lily been boosting your ego?"

"Not intentionally," Gold rumbled, unperturbed. "Okay, pay close attention…"

Cedar leaned forward, and Gold began wildly swiping his paws around, shaking his wings, and generally contorting very much like Cedar had moments ago to shake the water off. His tail remained mostly still, cradling the second leaf ball out of sight, but the rest of him went crazy. He flung one paw up, then the other, tore up some grass, and then, when he dropped down to all fours, smashed the grass ball underpaw.

Cedar, by this point, was staring at Gold as if he was going insane right in front of him, and didn't notice the leaf ball being crushed into the dirt, mashed down so far it was unrecognizable and hidden by the grass.

Once Gold was satisfied with that, he calmed down, shuffled his paws a few more times for show, and then purred at Gold. "Okay, where is it."

Cedar looked down at his paws, and then up at his smug face. His ears fell, and he groaned loudly. "I… This one?" He smacked the same paw as before.

Gold was _almost_ impressed; if he had kept the leaf ball under his paws, that would have been the one he hid it under, assuming Cedar would go for the other. "This paw?" he asked, seeking confirmation. "That is your guess?"

"It… No, this one!" Cedar batted at his other paw. Now Gold was less impressed.

"Are you sure?" he asked, just to drag it out.

"Yes?" Cedar ventured. "I think so."

Gold lifted the paw Cedar had chosen to reveal… nothing.

Cedar sighed. "So it was the other one," he said.

Gold lifted his other paw to prove that wrong, too. "I said you had to tell me where it is when I am done. Nothing about that specified that it had to be under one of my paws." He brought his tail around and revealed the second, indistinguishable leaf ball.

"But…" Cedar shook his head and blinked a few times. "How did you get it there? I was watching!"

"I am smart and you were distracted," Gold said, leaving out that he had cheated, tricky wording aside. He _could_ have actually tried to fling the first ball up and over to his tail without it being noticed, but that would have had a high chance of failing. So long as Cedar _thought_ that was what he had done, it all worked out the same anyway.

"I should know better," Cedar grumbled. "Fine. I owe you a day of digging mud for your den."

"I am glad to hear you are a light wing of your word," Gold humed. "Now, do you know where I can find Crystal?"

O-O-O-O-O

"What do you want?" Crystal asked coldly. "I am _trying_ to get some sleep."

"It is the middle of the morning," Gold observed, looking around at the sunny little glade Crystal had found. "I sleep late, and even I am up now."

"I might have woken up in the middle of the night itching because some bugs decided to form a line across my back," Crystal huffed.

Gold held in a snicker and instead nodded gravely. "That stinks," he said calmly. "I was just wondering whether you would like to make a trade."

"This had better not be what I think it is," she growled.

"Labor for labor," Gold clarified, wondering what she thought he was meaning to propose. Some sort of mating arrangement was the obvious guess given his mostly-accurate reputation, but Lily would have to be involved in that, and he hadn't done any setup. "You come over and dig for our den for a day, and I will come do yours another day." Specifically, he would contribute his fire once she was done with the dirty part of the process, but he wasn't going to _say_ that.

"Why?" Crystal asked. "What do you gain?"

"I want to do something nice for Lily," he said, which was true. "I figured replacing myself with her best friend for a day would work, and in the meantime I can be setting up for later." Of course, he actually meant to have Lily not working that day either, but Crystal didn't need to know that until too late. She would have Cedar's company instead.

"That is… surprisingly nice of you." Crystal shook her head in disbelief. "Okay, sure. The first day we are all digging clay?"

"I thought we left Sire behind?" Gold asked, confused and more than a little worried.

"No, that is what the dirt we are collecting is called," Crystal snorted. "You really were not paying any attention. Learn before you dig for my den, if you do not know what you are doing you will just be wasting your time."

"I will learn sooner or later," Gold chuffed. "See you then?"

"See you then," Crystal confirmed.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold was just slurping down a particularly slimy and thin fish from the pile he had gathered when Lily approached from the other side of the river. She leaped and flew across, landing right in front of him.

"As it turns out," she said, taking one of his fish, "there is a big fallen tree a short distance upstream, one that's easy to walk across. So I ended up considering hills on the far side of the river, too."

"Did you find anything good?" Gold asked, preferring to leave unsaid his confusion as to why a tree mattered when she could just fly across. He would figure it out sooner or later.

"A few places, some quite close." Lily sat back and tossed the fish up, swallowing it in a single movement. "There are two I would be happy with. I just want to get Pyre in there to make sure I'm not missing anything, then your opinion on which, and then we can start digging it out."

"About that," Gold hummed. "You know how Pyre said it would take ten days?"

"No, that was just for getting all the clay and moving it over," Lily said. "Add a few for digging out our actual den, and a few more for flaming all of that clay."

"Whatever. That was ten days of labor from both of us, right?" he asked.

"Yes, it was." She warbled curiously. "So, what were you doing?"

"Arranging it so that _our_ den will be fully supplied with clay in…" He did the math in his head, pausing both for dramatic effect and because it wasn't the easiest problem to wrap his head around. "Seven days!" It didn't sound nearly as good when he said it out loud, but he presented it as a grand accomplishment and didn't let on that he had thought, in planning all of this, that his trickery would make far more of a difference.

"Really?" Lily asked. "How?"

"On the first day, Cedar will be helping us, not working on his own den," Gold began. "He lost a game with me. Liona will also be joining him because I suggested she bond with him over doing good deeds for others."

Lily tilted her head, a small purr working its way out of her. "You don't say," she rumbled.

"Crystal will be there in exchange for my help flaming her den at a later date," Gold revealed. "Mist, on the other paw, will be contributing because she is under the impression she needs to prove she can be as altruistic as Cedar." Cedar's participation had been instrumental in getting a lot of the other light wings, mostly because Gold was sure Cedar wouldn't actually tell anyone why he was really helping if a more flattering excuse came along.

"I see where you're going with this," Lily laughed. "How did you get Pearl, Pina, and Pyre?"

"Pearl was eager to do something for you anyway, Pina is coming to help because she feels it is her duty as your cavern-Dam, and I told Pyre that everyone else would be there, so if he wanted to demonstrate and help everyone on the first day, he should be there too," Gold revealed, not bothered by her leaping ahead. He was coming to expect that she would catch on quicker than he was used to.

"So we will have a finished den days before anyone else," Lily concluded. "That will be nice."

"I was originally aiming to have everyone else do it all for us, but that sort of got lost along the way," Gold admitted. "Now we will just be done a few days sooner." Which was, admittedly, still a huge deal. They would be luxuriating in their new den while everyone else was still working on theirs.

"I still like this," Lily purred. "Consider this a successful surprise. I _am_ impressed and entertained. But is this your only plot, or will there be more later? I cannot imagine you happily putting your back into something when some cleverness could have you sleeping instead."

"Maybe with help," Gold purred. He was looking forward to… everything, really. Life was good.


	28. Gold - Satisfied (AU)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities,** _ **as well as aspects of** _**When Nothing Remains,** _ **and much of** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **through chapter 36.**

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: Part nine of Gold's mini-series, the final episode! The big, dramatic fight scene that ends every story!**

**Or not. Probably not; Gold's not much of a fighter. But there will be a hugely important battle for the fate of the valley, so there is that.**

* * *

The problem with having a clever, deceptive mate was that one could never be sure whether they were doing exactly what they said for that reason alone, or if they had an ulterior motive in play too.

Gold knew he wasn't one to whine about deceptive mates; he had, if anything, encouraged that in Lily, though she had played him from the start so he couldn't claim any credit for it. She had certainly supported _his_ trickery when she liked what he was aiming for; that was how they had the only finished den as of now, a cozy hollow in the side of a hill with a nice interior _not_ made of dirt.

But when _she_ was plotting something, or he suspected she was, or in this case _hoped_ she was, it was hard to tell, and he found himself wondering without any evidence either way. A tricky, manipulative Lily looked the same as an innocent Lily, at least until she was ready to reveal what she was really doing.

Pyre strolled into sight, ambling along with an easy rumble, and set himself down across the hilltop from Lily with his tail to one of the big trees he had called a 'Spruce.' "Is everyone ready?" he asked.

Lily and Crystal looked up from their private conversation. "We were just passing the time," Crystal said. She was not as good a liar as Lily, but Gold couldn't count on his ability to discern truth with her, either. She and Lily together had been proven capable of stringing him along for as long as they wanted.

"Time passes on its own," Pearl said dreamily. She was lying on her back in a ray of sunlight, and until this moment Gold had assumed she was drowsing. She was acting odder and odder as the days wore on. Lily had given him a lengthy explanation about overbearing Dams and how Pearl was finding herself now that nobody was telling her what to do, but to him it seemed simpler than that. Pearl was going through a rebellious fledgling phase, that was all. She was just having it much later than most light wings.

He might have taken advantage of her current position to admire her underside, but Pina stood between him and Pearl, and was eyeing him like she knew exactly what he was thinking. When she was looking at him, that was. Half the time she was watching Cedar and Liona, or Mist, all three of which were across from her.

"Does anyone have anything to bring up?" Pyre asked loudly. "Any problems, any grievances?"

Gold certainly didn't; his life was great. Wondering about what Lily and Crystal were talking about, whether it related to him, and whether Lily was setting something up for later, was just a side occupation. He had no complaints.

"I do not have a grievance, exactly," Pina said slowly. "But I would like to revisit what we decided about mates. We are not allowing it with underage fledglings, correct?"

"We are not mates, you know," Cedar huffed. "Just _very_ good friends." Liona laughed at that, and he put a wing over her.

"Be that as it may…" She shook her head. "I do not feel right allowing this to go on under my nose. I know your parents, they would not let this happen in the valley. Not until you are of age."

"We really are not _doing_ anything," Liona complained. "Why does it matter?"

"Pina says she does not feel comfortable with this," Pyre interjected. "That is fair, we left the pack specifically because we did not approve of what others were doing, in some cases. It would be foolish to pretend that does not matter now. Pina, what would you propose as a solution?"

"I do not really know," Pina huffed. "It would be rude of me to request one of them sleep in my den for the time being, so I can rest assured that there is nothing going on, and pointless besides."

"There are only nine of us, and we're living in a huge forest," Lily observed dryly. "If they want to do things, nobody is going to catch them in the act. I would even say the same of the valley, though there was always the chance of being spotted by some random person and then gossiped about."

Gold purred quietly, well aware that she spoke from copious amounts of experience when it came to mating in the forest.

"We have our own dens," Cedar huffed. "I am not giving up my independence for this. We have given our word that we are not doing anything, why is that not enough?"

"It just is not," Pina huffed. "I will live with it if I have to, but I had hoped for some sort of solution."

"Hypothetically, what if their parents _did_ say it was okay?" Crystal asked. "Obviously they need to wait until the hot-season, but would it make you feel better to have their approval of the match for then?"

Gold eyed Crystal skeptically, wondering if this was her idea or Lily's doing. She wouldn't have had to do much if she knew this was going to come up, just plant a few ideas in Crystal's head over the course of a conversation about other things… or maybe they were both scheming together about something, and this was part of a larger plan.

"That would at least make me feel I was not letting them down," Pina said brightly. "And I did want to check in on some of my other friends."

"Wait, let's slow down," Lily said quickly. " _If_ somebody is going back to ask that question of their parents, and to do whatever other check-ins the rest of us request, we should pick the person or people best for the task. We don't know what we'll find back there."

"I do not want to go," Pearl said loudly. She had rolled over once Pyre began their little meeting, and now looked as serious and worried as she had carefree only moments ago.

"Neither do I, but I want someone to check on my parents," Crystal huffed. "Make sure they are okay."

"Pina, you shouldn't go," Lily said firmly. "We want to send the people most able to talk their way around anything the valley throws at them, and you are the oldest person they know about who left. If anyone would be to blame for us all going, it would be you."

"Nobody is blaming me for anything," Pina objected.

"She is saying they _could_ , if they want to blame someone," Mist supplied. "Like, who is going to blame Cedar? Nobody. He is a fledgling who was, if you want to make it sound bad, 'led astray' by the rest of us. You, on the other paw, are an older female who could be said to have tricked the rest of us."

"And it might be Cressa or Diora in charge," Gold said, seeing a way to support Lily's side in this little discussion without too much effort. "Both of them strike me as the 'angry when crossed' type."

"You have made your point," Pina huffed. "Not Pyre, obviously, they do not even know him. He is as much of a target for accusations as I am."

"I do not want to go if it is not safe," Liona said.

"We wouldn't send you either," Lily assured her. "No fledglings can go, that gives an excuse to anyone to say they do not know any better and force them to stay in the valley."

"You sound like you already know who should go," Mist observed. "Why not just cut to it and give us your solution?"

"If you insist," Lily rumbled. "I propose we send two light wings to go check the situation, talk to the parents, and check on the people we care about. Gold should go, because he's a mated male who could feasibly blame Pina for everything if need be, and is capable of talking his way out of pretty much anything."

Gold nodded, sure she was about to suggest herself too. He wasn't all that fired up about travelling and checking out the mess they had made and then left behind, but if she wanted to, he would tag along.

"And I would send Crystal with him, to provide an unattached female who can keep Gold in line, and if need be to lend her credibility where his is understandably lacking. I would go, but I would rather have my remaining here serve as a strong excuse for Gold to exploit against anyone trying to force him to remain. What cruel creatures would separate mates?" Lily purred sardonically.

Gold looked from her to Crystal, and noticed that Crystal seemed just as surprised, and more than a little unhappy about the plan.

"Well reasoned," Pyre praised. "But you will not go, even to remain outside the valley?"

"I trust my mate to handle himself without me holding his tail every step of the way," Lily said pleasantly. She phrased it as support of his independence, which he whole-heartedly approved of, but he could tell that wasn't her only reason.

She had been plotting, all right, and this was part of it. Crystal didn't _seem_ to be in on it, but something Lily was planning involved them going together to the valley and back.

The obvious guess was hopelessly optimistic, leaving him to ponder the more realistic reasons she might have for doing such a thing.

"If it has to be me, I can do it," Crystal offered.

"I am totally up for that," Gold said, deciding to play into Lily's plan.

Some of the other light wings began proposing alternatives, and Lily responded, but Gold knew this was all but over. When Lily wanted something and put her mind to it, she got it.

O-O-O-O-O

"You did not ask why I had you sent," Lily said the next morning. Crystal was nearby, leaning against a tree and stretching her legs before the long flight ahead of them.

"It was obvious," Gold said, playing dumb for the moment. She would know he was doing so, of course, but it would still make him look good and hide that he didn't _actually_ know what her game was. "You said most of it. I am clever and tricky and get to wiggle out of trouble while using you as an excuse to not stay. Crystal is along to make sure I actually do what I say, not just fly around and nap for a few days before returning and lying my tail off."

"That too," Lily conceded. "But I also want you to do something else on this trip."

"I am all ears," Gold hummed, wiggling his ears for emphasis.

"Show Crystal that you are not an obnoxious brat," Lily requested. "I'm getting a little tired of her attitude toward you, and she does not really want to listen to me."

"Doable," Gold hummed. "May I go to any length to achieve this?" He purred seductively just so that he knew for sure she heard the real question.

"If that part of you so much as touches her, she will rip it to pieces," Lily scoffed. "But just in case she doesn't, know that I say no. I'm not condoning that, not yet."

"Not _yet_ ," Gold whispered, seeing that Crystal was looking their way. "Thinking about it?"

"Still not saying no, more like," Lily huffed. "Right now, I just want her to not dislike you. She still remembers you being a sleazy, immature Claw-in-training. Fix that."

"Is your friendship strong enough to withstand her pining after me once I do so?" Gold asked.

"We'll manage," Lily snorted, pawing at his head until he ducked away from her. "Now get going! I expect you two," she raised her voice to include Crystal," back in ten days at most."

"It should only take a few days to fly there," Crystal offered. "We will be back in five."

"I'm a leisurely flyer," Gold supplied helpfully. "Take in the sights, enjoy the moment… No point rushing when we will just be coming back again, is there?"

"That is a lot of words to say you are lazy," Crystal growled.

"Wouldn't me using a lot of words where a few might do be proof against me being lazy?" Gold asked rhetorically. He bopped Lily's nose with his own and leaped into the air before Crystal could formulate a retort, already thinking about how to fulfil Lily's request. It was more like a challenge, really. Crystal did not hate him, but she definitely didn't think well of him outside of approving of the changes Lily claimed responsibility for.

Crystal caught up with him, visibly annoyed at being left behind, and cast him a scornful look that was laden with all of the disdain she felt he should know she felt at that moment. It was almost helpful, given he was actively plotting to correct that.

Lily had given him a _challenge_ , not a request. He liked the sound of that. If there was one thing he could claim as his best talent among the many, it was wooing females. Sure, he had gotten off to a rocky start in the past, but results mattered too, and he was the one with the best mate _now_.

"No, you just are not lazy in making yourself look good," Crystal shot back.

Yes, he thought, this would definitely help make their little trip more interesting.

O-O-O-O-O

They had spent the first day's flight in silence, aside from a few exchanges of purely practical nature. Gold had used that time both to plot, and to lull Crystal into thinking he would be silent the whole way. She had a whole set of preconceived notions, most put there by his far more invested past self, and he could only assume that being more paws-off at first would help remove some of that.

That night, he forced himself to stay up late. They had set down on the shore to sleep, and Crystal was visible nearby, lying between two dunes. If she were Lily, he would long since have made something of the easily redirected mounds of sand on either side of her, but he had a feeling that pranking would not be received well.

Crystal saw him as immature, lustful, and being _fixed_ by Lily, who she liked and respected. She had also thoroughly despised Claw, who had been pushy, obnoxious, and thoroughly selfish unless it suited him to pretend otherwise. She had _apparently_ been into Granite, who had been simple, kind, and unassuming.

It was oddly morbid, taking cues from two dead dragons and his past self, but he did it anyway. He had two bad examples and one good one to work with, more than enough to give him a solid idea of what would help Crystal like him. Or want him, but that was fine, overshooting wasn't a problem.

He set himself up on the top of one of the dunes by Crystal, dug his paws into the sand, and sat back. His tail draped down to one side, and he hunched his wings a little more to give him a larger silhouette in the darkness. Then he looked out at the dark ocean, did his best to relax, and casually shifted a small pile of sand to the side, causing a tiny landslide that trickled across Crystal's forehead.

She shook her head and grumbled incoherently, the skin between her scales tickled by the tiny grains, and for a moment he thought he would have to try again since she hadn't noticed him. Or, he thought she hadn't; he was looking out at the water, not down at her, not even out of the corner of his eye. That would defeat the purpose, but it did mean he didn't know whether she had gone back to sleep, or was staring at his back wondering what he was doing.

He sat still, resisting the urge to move even his ears, and waited. All was silent, aside from her breathing and his and the rush of the water in the distance-

Gold let out a decidedly unflattering screech as something clamped down on the very end of his tail, the sensitive little nub between his fins. He leaped forward out of pure reflex, then tried to turn, only to find that there was nothing under his paws and his wings weren't out. He smacked into the sand pile at an angle and slid down, his tail throbbing and his pride thoroughly bruised.

Crystal glared down at him, her eyes fierce. " _What_ were you trying to do?" she snarled.

"I was not doing anything except watching for danger!" Gold huffed, sticking to his original explanation. It was true, in a way; he hadn't been doing anything at all, and one could claim that the sea was dangerous. Anything could be down there in the depths, after all.

He waved his tail around in the air behind him, trying to be subtle about finding out whether it was bleeding or not. It throbbed hard enough that he wouldn't be surprised to find out she had bitten the very tip off in her anger. "I was not sleeping, so I decided I should watch over you. We are not in a group anymore, safe in numbers."

The anger went out of Crystal's eyes, and her teeth retreated, both very good signs in Gold's opinion. "I do not believe you," she hissed, but it was suspicion he heard, not rage.

"I saw a need, so I took it upon myself," he said simply, looking away from her. "Why is that unbelievable?"

"Because you are obnoxious and selfish, no matter what Lily is teaching you," Crystal huffed.

"If that is what you would like to believe, you may," he said, pawing at his tail and not looking her in the eye. "You can go back to sleep, I will watch from somewhere further away."

Crystal looked around, intentionally avoiding _his_ gaze now. "Do you think we are in danger?" she asked.

"No, but I would rather be sure."

"We should have set up some sort of watch before tonight," she gruffly conceded. "You until midnight, me from then until daybreak. Got it?"

"You can sleep all night," Gold offered selflessly. "I can handle it." He couldn't, of course, the very thought of going two days and a night without sleep was anathema to everything he lived for, stress and suffering for absolutely no reason.

But he wasn't planning on _actually_ carrying his offer out, not if he had the measure of Crystal's mood. Sure enough, she cast him an uncertain look before shaking her head. "No. That is a bad idea. We will do what I said."

"If you insist." He shrugged his wings.

"And…" She huffed and turned her back on him. "If you must watch from that close, go ahead."

Gold held in a celebratory chuff, keeping to his somewhat contrite, serious facade. Instead, he went over the traits he had intentionally displayed for Crystal.

Caring, to sit watching for her safety. Contrite, when caught at it, though he had done nothing obviously wrong. Understanding, to not obnoxiously rub her actions in her face. Caring again, to offer to take the whole night. Humble, if she had picked up on that one at all, because he wouldn't have even told her about standing watch if she hadn't 'happened' to wake up and catch him at it. And best of all, not once had he given her even the slightest leer, made even a mostly-innocent quip or stared at her.

All of which were qualities in direct opposition to who she thought he was. Some of it was over the top, not who he really was, but that wasn't as important as wiping the sand clean on the matter of his reputation. Obnoxiously lustful and lewd met humble and polite, and hopefully canceled each other out, leaving her able to like what he really was.

It was a strategy he felt Lily probably would have used, and that made him even prouder. She had tricked him in the beginning, and now he was using what he had learned from being around her to return the favor to someone else.

Gold returned to his hard-won perch with its back to Crystal and uncomfortable sandy summit, and resigned himself to staring at the water for a while longer. The sacrifices he made for his own cleverness…

O-O-O-O-O

Their next day of flying went by just as silently as the first, partially because Gold was feeling all the sleep he had missed, and partially because Crystal seemed troubled. He tried to power through the first while quietly appreciating the second. Troubled wasn't a good end goal, but it was a great start. Another character-showing moment like that one might be enough on its own, though he admittedly didn't have anything in mind yet. He was hoping another night of very obviously standing guard over her while she slept would have an effect too.

That hope was dashed when a familiar set of mountains rose in the distance. He shook off his lethargy and tried to make the most of what he was seeing by starting a conversation. "Is that it? It felt like we had walked a lot further than this."

"Walking can be misleading?" Crystal offered. "It _did_ feel longer… But we did not pass over any mountains on the way, so that has to be the valley."

"Well… great." He looked over at the slowly setting sun. "Do we sleep on the shore, go in and try to do what we came for tonight, or what?"

"You are asking me?" Crystal asked. "I assumed we would be going our own ways while we were here."

"Not there yet," Gold pointed out. "I think we should stay away until tomorrow morning. That way, we go in with the sun and leave before it sets. No need to mess with having to sleep with our parents, or on some random rock, or leaving the valley again just to go back in the morning."

"I guess that makes sense," Crystal huffed. "But I want to at least fly over now. Camouflaged, so they don't notice me."

"That will put us close to the valley... " An idea occurred to Gold, a wonderfully entertaining one, and he couldn't help himself. "But I know a place close by for us to sleep where nobody will stumble across us, so that is good."

"That works," Crystal agreed. She fired in front of them, and Gold did the same. It seemed they were off to fly over and likely learn nothing of value.

As they approached, he noticed that there were more people than normal flying around. Pairs of two, three, and even four all flew together, and nobody flew alone. The groups rose from different parts of the valley, and there didn't seem to be any tension between them, but that they existed at all was odd enough on its own. Most seemed to be going fishing or just flying around randomly.

He and Crystal gained height, and soon they were passing over the mountains. He glanced down, picking out the almost imperceptible flat spot that used to belong to Pyre, and another rock across the mountain that he and Lily had used once on a whim, and…

"Why is it like this?" Crystal huffed. "What has gone on since we left?"

Gold looked at the valley itself, wondering what she meant. "I do not see anything different," he said. Maybe people were grouping together more, but it was hard to tell since the sun was setting and most people were going home anyway.

"Look at the pond," she replied. "See how there is a group on one side, and one on the other?"

"Yes?" All he saw was two separate groups of light wings. It was a little odd that they were all clumped together instead of spreading out, but that was the same oddity they were seeing everywhere, not something new.

"That is not normal," Crystal said.

"What is normal?" Gold asked, confused. Sure, it was a little odd to see two big groups, but in his experience people tended to group up all the time. It was probably just some sort of innocuous-

A light wing flew in to land next to one of the groups, and the other began to mill about, some slipping away and others defiantly holding their ground. The group the light wing had joined was not so disturbed, but from above it was obvious that the ones furthest from the newcomer were slinking away.

"Okay, yes, I see it now," Gold admitted.

"Good… I think coming back in the morning is a good idea." Crystal turned around so abruptly Gold almost lost track of her, and they were quickly making their way back toward the forest. "I do not want to fly into that without knowing what is going on, and the first place I can think of to catch my parents and ask them about it is out over the water tomorrow morning. My Sire always goes to the same spot to fish."

"That sounds like a solid plan," Gold praised. "Much better than my idea, I was just going to fly down and find Ash. He would tell me everything he knew, but he probably would not know much."

"No, he probably would not," Crystal snorted. "So, where is this place of yours? I want to see it."

"We should only go there once we are ready to settle down for the night," Gold chuffed. "Leaving and coming back multiple times will make it less discreet." All of which was true, though it wasn't the only reason he was putting off showing her. It would be better if she was sleepy and ready to relax when he sprang his surprise on her. She would be less motivated to waste energy chasing him down and biting him, for one thing.

O-O-O-O-O

The next morning was a grey, drab, overcast affair barely worth waking up for. Gold battled lethargy the way a more valiant light wing would battle a mortal enemy they somehow didn't really mind losing to; which was to say, slowly and unsuccessfully. He was cold, alone on a ledge.

Crystal flew by, flitting across his narrow field of vision. She didn't call out to him, which fit the silent, contemptuous way she had taken the reveal of his little joke. He had expected surprise, embarrassment, and likely anger when she realized he meant for them to spend the night on the ledges. Not a silent glare and nothing more. That wasn't quite as funny, and her taking a ledge as far from him as possible was worse.

If he was going to ascribe complicated messages to her actions - something he always did with Lily, but other light wings were rarely so thoughtful about how they conveyed their feelings in the moment - he would say she had chosen to take her own ledge as a way of saying the strategic excuse he had used for his joke was sound, but that she didn't appreciate him trying to make it into something embarrassing.

He groaned, giving up and stumbling to his paws in defiance of the half-hearted lethargy that meant to keep him lying around all day. It was too cold to enjoy lazing about, and the faster he got what he had come for done, the faster he could go back home to Lily. Maybe he would keep working on Crystal on the way back, maybe not. It wasn't like he _needed_ to make friends with her.

One hastily-caught double-pawful of fish later, he was ready to drop down, talk to a few specific light wings in the valley, pop over to see his parents long enough that they couldn't complain he was a terrible son, and then find Crystal and go. No tricky schemes, no convoluted plans of action, just get in, deliver a few messages, show himself, and get out.

That simple, beautiful plan disintegrated the moment Cressa spotted him. "Hey, what are you doing flying over the pond?" she demanded, dropping down to fly right over him. Her voice was rough, as if she had been doing a lot of roaring recently, and she looked angry, so angry he didn't even enjoy staring up at her.

"I think you just said what I am doing," Gold responded.

"You know that is not allowed now!" Cressa barked. "Which side are you on?"

"Yours?" Gold said. "Whichever one will get you to stop barking at me like a crazy person." He dropped to land by the pond, and noticed that nobody was around, though he had definitely seen a few bystanders loitering nearby before Cressa found him. Either they had all found something else to do, or they were avoiding her. Which made sense, she was someone he would happily avoid if he could, but clearly something more than simple dislike was going on here.

Cressa landed right in front of him, spun, and bared her teeth at him. "Wrong side!" she hissed. "Get out of there! Have you been hiding under a rock this whole time?"

"I will say yes if that means you explain why I cannot land here," he offered, wondering whether she even recognized him. She certainly didn't seem to know that he'd not been in the valley for more than a moon-cycle. He _hoped_ she didn't recognize him, since he'd sent her looking for Claw in exactly the wrong direction the last time they had interacted.

"I will say it slowly for your tiny mind," Cressa huffed, leading him around the pond. She hopped over a deep furrow in the dirt and stopped on the other side. "This," she said, patting the ground with a paw, "is the side of the valley where all of my loyal supporters live."

"Right…" Gold nodded. "And here?" he asked, indicating his side of the furrow.

"The foolish idiots who cannot see the truth in front of their face," Cressa snarled. "The ones who believe Claw will return."

"Who leads them?" he asked, despite having already guessed the answer. "Is it Claw? Does he speak to the worthy and ignore the rest?"

"Where did you hear that?" Cressa hissed.

"I mean, if I were him," Gold mused, "I would be using this as a way to weed out those most loyal to me. Just saying. Hiding and seeing who does what might be enlightening."

Cressa's eyes widened a bit before she regained control of herself and glared at him. "That is just a stupid thing Diora spreads to make sure everyone listens to her instead of me. He must be dead, there is no reason for him to stay away or pretend he is dead like you say."

"Well, it seems like something smart, and he is smart so he would do it," Gold said casually, turning away from her. "I will stick to this side of the valley, thank you very much." Mostly because if he assumed the line stretched straight across the entire valley, his parents' rock would be on this side, but Cressa didn't need to know that.

"If Claw were around, he would be taking charge and telling me so I knew not to try and usurp him," Cressa said, ignoring the hint that he was pretty much done talking to her. She seemed a little shaken…

"He is probably watching to see how deep a hole you dig for yourself," Gold said, hiding an amused purr by faking a cough. "Sorry, something tickled my throat. Anyway, maybe I am wrong. It is not like I have seen more camouflaged light wings lurking around since he disappeared… I am sure there is another explanation for that." He leaped into the air and flew away before she could respond.

Messing with Cressa was _fun_ ; he hadn't forgotten how much Lily disliked her, or how she had tried to set Claw on Pyre just to spite Lily, and Lily had ranted about her once or twice after leaving the valley, ranting he had dutifully listened to, and not _just_ because she was especially attractive when she looked like she was going to smack someone-

He snorted and flicked his tail, intentionally sending himself into a downward spiral to force his mind off of Lily. The urge to go find her and do something fun wasn't very helpful when she was days away and thus very much not available.

Instead, he pondered Cressa and Diora. He had messed with Cressa, gotten under her scales and implanted some doubt as to what was really going on… Because it was fun, mostly. He hadn't meant to take it anywhere, and left alone she would reassure herself and forget he ever said anything.

On the other paw, if he put a little effort into it… Crystal didn't like Diora or Cressa either, as far as he knew. Maybe she would appreciate an apology in the form of a trick played on the both of them?

O-O-O-O-O

"And come back soon to visit again," his Dam said firmly. His Sire nodded in the background, always in the background… Gold suppressed a shudder. His Sire seemed happy, but happy to be marginalized and unimportant. It was all the more striking after not seeing it for a while; he almost spoke up. It was only the knowledge that his Sire was _always_ like this that stopped him.

"I will try," he said, "but you know how it is." Leaving it vague _what_ he meant hopefully meant they wouldn't ask-

"How is it?" his Sire asked guilelessly.

"No, you know," his Dam huffed, swiping her tail through the air dismissively. "Travel, getting past our obnoxious excuses for leaders, and then there is finding time to actually check up on us old light wings when everyone interesting has already left."

"Pretty much," Gold agreed, glad to be spared the effort of actually saying all that himself. He was less happy about his Sire being snubbed, but that wasn't his business.

A light wing flew over them, so low Gold could have reared up and tried to catch her with his claws. Diora landed on the currently unoccupied rock nearest them, and immediately leaped over, almost displacing his Sire in her rush to get right up in his face.

"You have seen him!" she barked, hurting his ears.

"Who is him and why does he need you to deafen me?" Gold muttered, feigning ignorance.

"Claw!" Diora exclaimed. Her breath, he noticed, was rank and smelled of something he didn't recognize at all. "Cressa just barked at me about sending someone to spread rumors about seeing Claw, and I did not do that, so you are telling the truth! Tell me!"

Gold wrinkled his nose and tried to breathe through his mouth. "I saw a camouflaged light wing lurking near where Cressa spends a lot of time, watching, and said it might be Claw," he recounted, thinking quickly. This was an opportunity literally dropped on him from above - both Cressa and Diora had swooped in of their own accord - and he didn't want to waste it, especially as it saved him time since he no longer needed to seek Diora out. "He might have told me to 'step up and take charge,' but I do not feel like doing that. If he is around, why should I hold power?"

"What?" Diora demanded. Her pupils were strangely large, even given her current state of excitement, and he thought he noticed her swaying a bit.

"Well, the way I see it, he wants to see who is strong enough to take over for him, and is not planning to show himself until someone does it," Gold said. "Obviously that is not _me,_ and it is neither you nor Cressa since you both only have half the valley each. Whoever manages to get everyone under their control might win his approval…"

Diora's eyes widened even further, and Gold _knew_ that she was going to take whatever he said as truth, no matter how far-fetched. There was something very obviously wrong with her, though he had no idea what.

He also knew that setting Diora on a path to fight Cressa and take control of the valley for Claw's favor wasn't the most entertaining thing he could do with this amazing opportunity, so he quickly kept talking. "But that is probably not it. What I think he really wants is to see something new and different. He probably left because he was bored, right? Forget plans of seeing loyalty or strength, he just wants to be entertained."

"Right, right, his mates were all boring, talentless wastes of space," Diora said urgently, nodding so hard he was surprised her ears weren't audibly slapping against her head with every jerk. "But _I_ am-"

"Not _quite_ interesting enough," Gold interjected. "Think about it. Come up with something alluring he has _never_ seen before, something he wouldn't be able to resist, and make sure the whole valley sees it." His Dam was giving him a very unhappy look, but he ignored her with ease. This was going to be _great_.

"Like what?" Diora asked.

"Something so good Dams and Sires everywhere have to hide their fledglings' eyes," Gold suggested. "Do not involve any other males, he probably would not want to see them doing anything, but other than that, go wild."

"I can be wild and do crazy things," Diora all but panted. "Yes, yes, that could work. Yes!" She bulled past him, leaped into the air, and flew away on unsteady wings.

Gold stared up at her as she left, feeling both pleased and confused. "What has she been doing recently?" he asked curiously.

"I heard someone told her that a certain mushroom helps with memory, and that she ate a whole bunch and liked how they made her feel," his Sire volunteered. "She has been very… suggestible… since then."

"Well, that explains it," he chuffed. He wished Lily was here to see this, whatever it would be. It promised to be hilarious.

"That was…" His Dam sighed and pawed at her face in exasperation. "You are still the same old Gold, no matter how much things change."

"Stil brilliant," he quipped. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go find a good place to sit and watch whatever she comes up with."

"Me too," his Sire said. Gold left to the sound of his Dam gasping dramatically.

O-O-O-O-O

"You are a lazy waste of space," Crystal huffed as he glided in to join her on her way out the valley. "Did you do _anything_ we came here to do?"

"I talked to my parents," Gold defended.

"Anything _else_?" Crystal pressed irritably.

"That we were supposed to do?" He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He had flown in, gotten ambushed by Cressa, went to see his parents, listened to his Dam's nattering, gotten ambushed by Diora, taken advantage of her mushroom-induced stupidity to set up something funny, gone for food, come back, hung around a bit, then seen Crystal…

"What were we supposed to do, again?" he asked. _His_ mission had been to make friends with Crystal and maybe get her hot for him, just in case. And to bail her out if someone tried to blame her for something, but the valley was way too disorganized for that to have happened, so she probably wasn't mad at him for not doing that.

"Ugh," Crystal groaned. "You are terrible. I did everything else, do not worry."

"That is great," he assured her. He still didn't remember what everything else _was_ , but it would come to him if it was important later.

"I am still mad at you for the ledge thing," she added as they passed by the ledges. She was leading him out to sea, probably for her own food, since he had already eaten. "I am going to tell Lily."

"That I had a good idea?" he said, genuinely annoyed. "If I had planned to get on top of you in the night or something, I would not have set it up like that. It was just a joke to get you flustered, not some half-hearted seduction technique." If he had been going hard for her, he would have brought fish and rubbed up against her and done half a dozen other things to sound out how she was likely to take any given approach. It was _clearly_ just a joke.

"Jerk," she said, though he thought he detected a hint of remorse in the way she wasn't denying his reasoning. "Your jokes are terrible."

"My jokes are great," he purred, remembering what he had set up. "On that subject, we _have_ to stay until something I did today pans out. Trust me, we cannot miss it."

"How long will it take?" Crystal asked with a huff. "I wanted to try and patch things up with my Dam tomorrow, so I was thinking we should stay another day anyway, but no longer than that."

"I do not actually know," he admitted. "It will be soon, but how soon depends on how elaborate Diora gets in planning her triumphant display."

"Display?" Crystal asked.

"Yes, I-"

A blast exploded somewhere behind them, and he cut off to spin in a tight circle and face the valley. Someone had fired up into the sky and let the bolt detonate, and that seemed like the sort of thing one would do to get the attention of somebody who could be anywhere in the valley… "It might be starting, come on!"

"You better not have started some stupid war," Crystal barked as she turned around and caught up with him. "It would not just be Diora and Cressa, they would drag others into it like they already have."

She kept ranting at him about whatever she thought he had done, but he tuned her out. Far more interesting was the plateau, where two light wings faced off. He dove to land somewhere with an unobstructed view, a rock just close enough to hear anything they said without straining, and Crystal landed next to him, going silent as she took in the scene.

Diora was swaying as she walked, circling around Cressa, who was growling and turning to keep her in sight.

"I challenged you to a fight for leadership of the pack until Claw returns," Cressa snarled at Diora. "Are you accepting, or not? Answer me?"

"Claw would not want us to fight, not like this," Diora said in a perky voice. She came a little closer in her endless circling, and Cressa growled at her. "I do not want to _fight_. We should do something else, compromise. If we are interesting enough, he will return."

"You are not making any sense," Cressa growled, sounding bewildered. "If this is that stupid mushroom making you strange again, you need to lay off and eat something normal for a change. And smack your mate for ever suggesting it."

"The mushroom is good, I like it, but I have not had any since… yesterday?" Diora shook her head. "I want something else now… I want to make a scene, to make Claw happy, to do something different he will like watching."

"What did you _do_?" Crystal hissed under her breath. "Why is Diora acting like that? And why is Cressa talking like Claw is alive, when her taking over was all about him not being alive?"

"I am good with words," Gold said smugly, his eyes stuck firmly on the unraveling debacle in front of him. There were plenty of other light wings watching from around the plateau, his Sire and Dam among them, and there was a curious lack of non-adult spectators… His Dam glared at him, and he suspected she had spread the word to save innocent young ones from whatever horribly traumatizing act Diora was about to perform…

Gold knew what he _hoped_ Diora was thinking; Lily couldn't blame him for watching something she did in front of the whole pack, could she? If that something was leaping on top of Cressa and making like a few of the more _interesting_ pairings he had seen in his time spying on the ledges, well he was just a very lucky male in the right place at the right time. It wasn't like he had told her to do it directly.

"I challenge you to a different test of ability!" Diora announced. Gold had to stop himself from rubbing his paws together gleefully, or rubbing something _else_. The knowledge that Crystal would body-check him off the boulder if he did the latter was helpful in controlling himself on that score. It was about to begin…

"What?" Cressa asked suspiciously.

O-O-O-O-O

"Yes, what?" Lily asked three days later, with what Gold considered to be an adorable scowl. Doubly so, since he knew it was completely unwarranted. A hundred different dirty thoughts had to be flying through her head right now, and every moment he failed to answer would be making her guess more and more extreme things…

"Well, Diora opened her mouth and started yowling like someone had kicked her between the legs," Gold revealed. "Cressa asked what she was doing, and Diora told her that the magic fat fish she met the other day had taught her to make beautiful noises, and that she was challenging her to a competition."

Lily rolled her eyes so hard Gold thought he might have seen the back of an eyeball, even though that was impossible. She then proceeded to glare at him. "They had a howling competition," she said flatly.

"Yes, Cressa could not back down," he said gleefully. "I saw her staggering away afterwards, I think she deafened herself. Even better, neither of them had decided on a way to see who _won_ before they started, so once they were both too tired to keep screeching, they started arguing about it, and eventually decided they would have to do it again later with proper rules."

"Okay," Lily admitted with a small purr, "that's funny. Not exactly _good_ for the pack that has to deal with them, but funny nonetheless."

"I know, right?" Gold said, throwing out a wing to lay it on top of her. They were lying side by side, as befitting a mated pair after one of the two had just returned from a long, arduous journey fraught with danger-

"But you were hoping for Diora to do something vile, weren't you?" Lily guessed.

"I am transparent to you, nothing I think remains private," Gold moaned dramatically. "If it is any consolation, I would have told you all about it if they did anything dirty."

"You would have, too," Lily agreed. "And Crystal would have told me. How did that go?"

"I totally failed," Gold admitted gleefully. "I think she hates me more than she did before we left." He _didn't_ actually think that, he was pretty sure his initial efforts had made some impact on how she thought of him, but not enough to notice. The three-strike combination of annoying her with a crude joke, totally slacking off on their assigned tasks, and then arranging the beautiful mess that was two dueling alphas howling at each other and the sky… Suffice to say the trip back had not been fun at all. He didn't really care; he had Lily.

"Well, it was worth a try," Lily snorted. "Anything else interesting to report?"

"Nothing at all, but you could tell _me_ something interesting," Gold mused, leaning in close. "When I let you wonder what Diora was about to do, what was the most interesting thing you guessed in your head?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily said, playing coy. "I was just trying to remember who I told about the mushrooms, and how Diora heard about them."

"Cressa said Ivy told her," Gold recalled. "But really, what were you thinking? And was it anything we could try?"

Lily stretched her tail out, tapping her fins on the smooth clay that made up the interior of their den. "We were going to go meet up with the others," she said. "But… Maybe I can _show_ you my best idea…"

"Sounds good to me," he purred as she moved. He considered his little excursion to be a success in all the ways that really mattered.

"And later," she hummed, wrapping her tail around his and shuffling around, "you can tell everyone exactly how you manipulated them into doing all of that."

"That ruins the mystique," he whined.

"If anyone wants to go back, they should know how to manipulate the local powers," Lily argued. Her tongue lapped at one of his ears, distracting him from putting his all into coming up with a counterargument.

"Why would anyone go back?" he asked instead.

Lily hesitated in her movements, seemingly giving the question some actual thought. "Seeing parents for those who want to, maybe. Pina will want to go back for her friend. Other than that, you have a point."

"Everyone is happy here," Gold said smugly, glad to have gotten one over her even through the fog of pleasant distraction her tail and tongue were inducing. "Pearl away from her Dam, Pyre safe and respected, Mist gets to do what she wants, Cedar and Liona can eye each other in peace, and we get to sit back in a pack that is not packed with idiots and bad customs." He almost mentioned Pina maybe going after Pyre - or maybe her clawing at that tree meant he had told her no in no uncertain terms, maiming inanimate objects might be a weird anger management technique - but talking about Lily's closest family members would probably have killed the mood. Especially as she would definitely have an opinion on that potential pairing.

"And mate whenever we want," Lily murmured, oblivious to his thoughts. "Though we had that before we went…" She trailed off as he gnawed toothlessly on her ear.

"We can do whatever we want," Gold concluded, pawing at her. "And I know what you want…"

"Yes, you do," Lily purred, pushing him onto his side. He pushed back, kicking his paws out to catch her and pull her close.

All was perfect. He didn't know what tomorrow would bring, but it would probably involve him lazing around, having fun with Lily in both senses of the word, and making her happy. That meant he would be happy, and that was more than enough.

_**Author's Note:** _ **This chapter is one part 'full circle' (what with it being about Gold trying to interest Crystal and totally failing, then going to Lily and being cool with it) and one part absurd just because I could. Fitting for an end to this little mini-series, I think.**


	29. Astrid - Displaced (EC)

**CAUTION: Spoils aspects of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities** _

**Seriously, major spoilers here.**

**Assuming you wish to continue, read on…**

* * *

**Background: This is… Not what anyone was expect** **ing, I'm sure. But** _**Usurpation of the Darkness** _ **is coming to an end, slowly but surely, and certain aspects of the next big story in this universe could use some setup...**

**For reference, this is set about a year after the end of** _**Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities** _ **, give or take a few months. It's also the first entry of a two-part thing.**

* * *

Astrid stood from her chair, shaking off the numbness that came from sitting for too long with her legs bunched up beneath her, and threw the makeshift book down on the small side-table. It hit with a thump that echoed through her sparsely-decorated hut, the blank leather binding heavy and crude.

She wanted to pick up her ax and split the book in two, but a Chief wasn't supposed to kill the messenger, even if the messenger was an inanimate object. Slamming it down and glaring at it was all she was willing to do.

Her fireplace was burning low, casting less light than the torch mounted behind her chair, so she tossed a few more logs on and fanned the flames back to life. It was dark out, and she really should have gone to bed long ago, but the book had kept her up.

She had finally found the time to open it and begin reading, now that the darkness came early and the cold was enough to sap anyone's strength, forcing all inside except for the greatest possible needs. The other book she had been given remained unopened, and after the captivating but depressing thing she had just read, it would probably remain untouched. If she didn't give in to her urge to throw it in the fire too.

There was a thump at the door, and she tensed, her hands going to the handle of her ax. A latch locked the door, a sturdy one Gobber had fashioned for her with a sad, regretful smile. No Chieftain before her had ever needed to lock their doors…

But Berk was not quite so sure of itself these days. Stronger than ever, but less certain that pure strength and stubbornness would protect them. Her people did not speak of the lock, or why she had it. Some approved, others understood that it was not for her peace of mind, it was for theirs. They would not lose _two_ Chieftains to unnatural treachery. Not if a sturdy piece of ironwork could stop it.

"Knock again!" she called out, throwing her cloak over her shoulders. She wasn't about to open the door until she knew there was actually someone out there; all else aside, it was a freezing, windy night, and her torches were liable to go out if she was forced to open the door without some big Viking on the other side blocking the driving wind. The noise could have been a chunk of ice sliding off her roof.

Nobody responded, so she sighed, pulled her cloak close, and undid the latch enough to crack the door open and check–

The door jerked open to the extent the latch chain allowed, a gust of wind shoving in as if to escape its own chill, and she had to squint to look outside.

The village was quiet and empty; nobody stood on her doorstep. She shoved the door shut and rubbed her arms, crouching in front of the fire.

Others in the village did not have it quite so bad this winter; their dragons provided warmth by merit of being massive, hot-blooded creatures in a small space, to say nothing of their actual fire. She did not, both because she was Chief… And because she had no dragon companion. Stormfly was dead, and someone else had stepped on her grave and dug up her thoughts afterward, just to spoil the fond memories Astrid _did_ have of her companion.

She tossed her cloak aside, letting it fall in a bundle of yak fur in the corner, and again contemplated taking an ax to the book. It was not something she was happy to have read, she would never read it again, and if she destroyed it now, the village would never read it either. Ember's book existed, Fishlegs could have it, but this one didn't need to…

But it was all she had left of her companion of a single Winter and a little of the Spring that followed. All she had left of Stormfly, the chirpy, happy dragon who had played with her and helped her lead the village in its first steps with dragons…

The same dragon who was also, once one read into her thoughts, an immature, callous, selfish creature who had cared little for anything beyond image, the moment, and feeling superior. It stung like nothing else to look into her mind and find so _little_ to admire, so much casual cruelty, such a blunt, unfavorable story of a life told in her own selfish words.

Said story of one vain Nadder's lifetime also covered a critical time in recent history, and from the perspective of a dragon who was heavily involved in many of the important moments, both before and after the attack on the nest. Berk had no other record like this one, at least until Meatlug got around to dictating what, from the sound of it, would be an entire collection of books.

If it were up to her she would burn it. If it were up to an emotionless chieftain, it would be preserved to keep the record of what happened. It was even helpfully cut off at Stormfly's death, not explaining how she had died or how her memories had happened to be obtained and put to page.

"Oy!" a muffled voice shouted from outside. There was a loud knock at the door, this one undoubtedly real. "Chief!"

Astrid retrieved her cloak and opened the door, letting Gobber in. "What's going on?" she demanded. If Gobber had ventured out in the middle of the night, then it was serious.

"Just finished heatin' Bucket's bucket," Gobber revealed. "'E said his brain was frozen. The search and rescue team jus' got back."

"That's good news," she said impatiently. "You don't wake a Chieftain for _good_ news. What's the problem?"

"They got caught up in the freeze 'cause they found somethin' and spent two days sneakin' around ta get a look at it without gettin' caught," Gobber revealed. "Berserkers, diggin' into a big iceberg. Mulch says they're diggin' for somethin', and it looks like they already dug up a whole bunch of old ship bits."

"Pieces of ship?" Astrid waved a hand, cutting herself off. "I'll hear it from him tomorrow morning. Were they seen by the Berserkers?"

"Nah, that's what took them so long, they lurked around and snuck onto the iceberg at night," Gobber scoffed. "Shoulda just gone in swingin', we know Dagur is gonna make a move the moment he thinks he's got a chance against us."

"Which is why I'm wondering what, exactly, he's risking men and ships for right now," Astrid said. The last treaty-signing with Dagur had left the wild-eyed young chieftain spewing threats with no bite behind them, at least for the time being, and she had burned the treaty the moment he left, recognizing that it wasn't worth the parchment it was signed on. Only superior force on her side kept him from attacking openly, and he would be looking to change that.

"What do ya want ta do about it?" Gobber asked. "Mind ye, it could be somethin' stupid not worth attackin' over."

"Simple," Astrid said, smiling slightly. "We go there, dig whatever it is out ourselves, and see what it's really worth to Dagur." If it was a weapon they could keep it, and if it was some harmless piece of junk, they could sell it back to him or keep it as leverage. She was curious to see what he considered worth digging into in the middle of the winter.

And maybe once they had dug whatever it was out, she could drop Stormfly's book in the hole and be done with it. It was something to think about.

O-O-O-O-O

"Pickaxes, Gronckle," Fishlegs said to Astrid, pointing to the stack of the former atop the latter. She was amused by his conciseness; he didn't often get called out for important tasks like this, and seemed to be trying to make a good impression.

"Idiots, smart people," Meatlug added sourly, nodding toward Snotlout, Hookfang, and Spitelout, before nudging Fishlegs with her club-like tail. _She_ certainly wasn't worried about her value in Astrid's eyes.

"And the leaders of this little expedition are ready to go!" Snotlout proclaimed, hopping onto Hookfang's neck, as oblivious as ever.

"Hey!" Hookfang growled irritably and threw his rider into a snowdrift. Spitelout, who was seated much more securely between his back spines, scowled at his son.

Astrid held back a smile as Snotlout clawed his way out of the snow pile; she wasn't supposed to beat him up too frequently anymore, lest he and more importantly his family take it as a sign of a deeper disapproval, so she enjoyed others doing it more than she probably should have.

"Does this make me not an idiot?" Hookfang asked Meatlug.

"Yes, you're redeemed," Meatlug rumbled. "Alpha, are you coming with us?"

"I'm considering it," Astrid admitted. Her curiosity had not waned with half a night's sleep, and she was always looking for ways to take a trip up into the sky without neglecting her duties. Investigating a possible Berserker threat was important enough to merit her personal attention, especially with how quiet the village was on this particular day. The sky was dark and ominous, and another snowstorm was expected by nightfall. Those venturing out were only doing so to stock up on wood and food.

"We've got this," Spitelout gravelled. "No need ta worry yer pretty little head about us."

"You've yet to prove to _me_ that I should rely on you," Astrid said sternly. The best way she had found to deal with Spitelout's disrespect was to ignore it and strike right back at him. "I'm coming." She would have to ride with him and Snotlout on Hookfang, so she left it at that. Further chastisement could come later, once this was over. She had long since learned that it wasn't smart to go into a potentially hostile situation with one of her own seething from rebuke.

O-O-O-O-O

The iceberg was exactly that, a massive chunk of ice that radiated cold even in the middle of the winter. It was hard to distinguish from the frozen seas around it, the exact line between a thin sheet of surface ice and its massive bulk only betrayed by a ring of subtle cracks and a slightly different shadow under the ice where the snow didn't cover.

Four Berserker ships were secured within the ice, likely damaged by it forming around them. Ice expanded and destroyed hulls if the crews weren't careful about stopping it from forming. Judging by the swarm of activity around the ships, they had been spotted.

"I say we go in hot," Snotlout said as they passed over, well out of arrow range. "Flame them out."

"We're not at war with the Berserkers, Snotlout!" Fishlegs objected.

"And we wouldn' _be_ at war if there were no survivors to tell tha tale," Spitelout offered. "But that sort o' thing has a way o' goin' wrong. Stoick got the Murderous into the war against the Varl by provin' the Varl pulled something like that."

"It's an iceberg," Astrid said, staring down at the icy waters. "Hookfang, I want you to lay down a line of fire between them and the iceberg, then go around. Make a moat." Their ships were stuck in the ice and possibly only still above the water because the ice was holding them up, and the average Viking wouldn't survive even a brief swim. The water was an impassible obstacle to them.

"How does that help?" Hookfang asked.

"On it, Chief!" Snotlout yelled, yanking on Hookfang's horns. Astrid gripped his spines tightly as they dove, the cold air driving against her face and making her cheeks numb. The heat of Hookfang's oily fire did little to warm her, with how fast they passed over and flew away.

It took two passes, and in that short time, the Berserkers didn't fire on them. Astrid didn't know what orders they had about starting wars, but she suspected they weren't willing to risk that Dagur would object after the fact. Soon there was a turbulent moat between the Berserkers and the iceberg, and both Meatlug and Hookfang were landing near the obvious mining point, the place with wood and debris strewn everywhere.

"I expect that will have refrozen by nightfall," Meatlug said primly, landing on top of a snow-covered ledge. "Now, what do we have here? Fishlegs?"

Fishlegs slid off her back, a pickaxe over his shoulder, and wandered into the carved-out hollow in the iceberg. Astrid leaped off to follow him, but not before pointing to Snotlout and then the sky. He and Hookfang took off again-

But Spitelout didn't go with them as she had intended, instead dismounting just before they took off. "This better be good," he said loudly. "I'd not put it past those idiot Berserks to be out here diggin' up ice for their crazy Chief's yak pies."

"Yak pies are served hot," Meatlug rumbled.

Astrid, once again glad that Spitelout had yet to learn even the basics of the dragon language, happily ignored both of them in favor of inspecting the work site they had commandeered.

The Berserkers had carved out a roughly cone-shaped hole in the bottom of the iceberg, the point angled down and to the side with a slope just shallow enough to walk without difficulty. The hole was wide and tall enough for two or three men of Fishlegs' bulky stature, and surprisingly dark on the inside…

Spitelout kicked the side of the entrance, spraying Meatlug's hide with shards of ice. She growled, and he huffed right back at her, sounding much like a disgruntled dragon himself. Neither of them had much patience for the other.

"There's wood here, and here," Fishlegs called out from deeper in. "It looks like they were excavating the wreck of a ship… A very well-destroyed ship."

Astrid went deeper into the hole, drawing her cloak about herself as she did. It was bitterly cold, more so than even the skies above. There was no wind, but in exchange every surface seemed to suck the heat right out of her.

There were fragments of wood embedded in the ice as she went further in. They were small and everywhere, a thousand worthless shards lining the hole and presumably frozen deeper in the ice…

She stopped and looked down, scraping aside some frost-encrusted bootprints to see _into_ the ice. She couldn't see much, but it looked like there was more further down.

"Fishlegs?" she asked. He had gone quiet, and though she could see his back, she didn't see what he was looking at, staring up into the ceiling of the tunnel at something completely unrecognizable from her angle.

"This is an old ship," he said softly, his tone reverent. "The sail is from back before Hardra the Many-Headed redesigned it to what we know today, and that was centuries ago."

"Many-Headed?" Astrid asked, impressed in spite of herself. She didn't even know what a Chief had to do to be called that.

"Legend says he had a skull attached to each of his gauntlets, another on each shoulder, and one on his belt buckle," Fishlegs explained, turning to her. "We have to dig all of this out! It's a historical marvel!"

"We're going to dig it out," Astrid assured him. "But I think I know enough about Dagur to know he's not doing this out of love for his tribe's history." He _certainly_ didn't love recent history, and his stated aim was to return to the bad old days. If he thought something on this old ship would help him do that, she wanted it, if only to keep from him.

"Meatlug, we could use some lava," Fishlegs called out. His Gronckle companion buzzed in to meet them, and Astrid stepped back to let them work. A test shot of gronckle lava was fired at the icy ground, where it promptly hissed its way back into being a solid rock, melting a small circle of ice in the process. Fishlegs and Meatlug discussed that seemingly worthless result for a while, using plenty of terms she didn't entirely understand, and then Meatlug fired right at the far wall.

Said wall promptly melted, and Astrid had to step back from the flow of steaming water. "I don't know what you did, but keep doing it," she said.

"We just-"

She put her hand out and shook her head. "If you can't explain it in ten words or less, save it for when we're back on Berk."

"I can do that," Meatlug snorted. "I fired coal instead of limestone. Coal keeps heat better."

"That was painfully vague and incomplete," Fishlegs complained.

"It was also more than enough for me," Astrid countered. "We can correct my lack of knowledge _later_. I-"

The ice rumbled around them, and she looked over at the circular tunnel Meatlug had blasted into the ice. The lump of fiery coal was slowly sinking out of sight, its forward momentum expended, and behind it was what looked like a formerly intact plank of wood, steaming at the edges…

And a dark, scaly muzzle, angular and with scars crossing an eyelid. Droplets of water slid down the motionless grey face, and the coal continued to sink out of sight, fizzling as it was drowned in the water it created.

"Looks like this ship had some cargo," she observed, breaking the shocked silence. She wondered whether Dagur was digging for old dragon restraints; some long-lost design could conceivably be an improvement over the usual chains and locks, and he _was_ planning on fighting her dragon-heavy forces. Keeping prisoners completely neutralized would be a worthy advantage.

"I do not know that kind of dragon," Meatlug growled. "That is a first for me."

"Maybe it's a… no, it's too small." Fishlegs shook his head sadly. "I can't tell what it is either, but it doesn't really matter. Nobody can survive being frozen in ice, not even a… Wait…"

"What?" Astrid pressed. She couldn't look away from the closed eye. Something was itching along the back of her spine, the same feeling she got when she was being watched. She glanced back at the tunnel entrance, but aside from Spitelout watching the Berserkers from the edge of the iceberg, they were alone.

Alone with the corpse frozen in the ice. She palmed her ax's handle, staring at the eyelid.

It twitched.

"Fishlegs, how sure are you that no dragon could survive this?" she asked calmly. If she attacked, fled, or even made a big deal out of what she had seen, he would panic and probably make a lot of noise. She didn't want to wake it.

"Very sure unless it's a Skrill, and even then I'm mostly sure," he said, peering into the ice off to the side, completely oblivious to anything she might have seen or imagined seeing. "Skrill are supposed to be able to survive being frozen, but Bork's papers say that's just a legend that stems from how they bury themselves in the snow when they're following winter storms."

"And what are the odds that this is a Skrill?" she asked softly. The eyelid hadn't twitched again, and it could just have been a trick of the light.

"I don't know, we can only see a tiny bit of it," Fishlegs said. "The Berserkers _did_ use a few in warfare a while back, so I guess it's possible. Not likely, though."

The dragon - it had to be a Skrill - blinked. Astrid flinched.

"Fishlegs," Meatlug rumbled. "Why don't you… go get Spitelout?" She buzzed uncertainly and stuck herself between Fishlegs and the eye, which blinked again, the reptilian interior eyelid sliding lazily up and down a heartbeat after the main eyelid. A grey, stormy eye stared blindly at Astrid, slowly focusing with a third blink.

"Sure, he should see this too," Fishlegs said obliviously. He stomped away, his every step loud and echoing to Astrid's adrenaline-heightened senses.

"You have been in an… accident…" Meatlug hummed quietly to the still mostly-encased dragon. "We are friends. We can get you out of here…"

The eyelid snapped open and the iris contracted. Lights flashed in the dark ice behind the head. Astrid appreciated Meatlug's attempt at diplomacy, but she didn't think it was working.

"What?" Fishlegs asked, turning around in the mouth of the tunnel. "Accident? Wait, what's that light?"

A surge of energy flashed up and over the dragon's face, and the ice _shattered_ outward. Astrid fell back, sharp pains crossing her face, and Meatlug's bulk landed on top of her as a blinding light and ear-shattering noise preceded a wave of force. She was weightless, falling-

The snow broke her fall, and she rolled without thinking, instinctively trying to avoid being squashed beneath Meatlug. Said Gronckle never hit the ground, orienting herself in the air and buzzing away somewhere. Astrid staggered to her feet, almost slipping on a patch of slick ice, just as Spitelout popped out of a pile of slush and snow.

"What in the bleeding hells was _that_?" he demanded incredulously.

Lightning, pure, unadulterated lightning, blasted out of the cave and struck the clouds in reverse of nature, and the Skrill flashed into being high in the sky, much higher than it possibly could have flown in the instant it had taken the lightning to strike. It screeched unbridled fury to the wind, crackling with power.

"Ah." Spitelout looked over at her, his eyes wide. "Tha' might be a problem."

"Coming in hot!" Snotlout yelled from above, Hookfang roaring immediately afterward. A plume of liquid flame shot out ahead of them as they strafed the Skrill, which moved in an instant, another lightning strike lancing out horizontally, blasting the air to its left.

Astrid squinted as the Skrill moved, wondering whether the impact had jarred her eyesight. It was not simply disappearing and appearing at the end of its strike, but it was not just flying either. Her eyes refused to follow its movement, and its shape distorted in the edge of her otherwise uncooperative vision, like it was squeezing through a thin, jagged tunnel in thin air.

"I have a concussion," Fishlegs moaned from somewhere nearby. "Dragons don't do that…"

"This one does," Astrid said grimly.

"Cool trick!" Hookfang roared, loosing another torrent of flame at the Skrill as he doubled back. "Do it again!"

The Skrill obliged him, but he didn't get to see it; he was too busy desperately dropping out of the sky to avoid a deafening blast of lightning. The Skrill appeared at the end of the attack, moving to where it had struck once more, and almost barely missed clawing Snotlout right off of Hookfang's back in the next moment.

Meatlug buzzed in, barreling into the Skrill from behind, and promptly bounced off like a pebble skipped on a lake, sizzling as she fell in a long arc toward the other end of the iceberg.

"Hey!" Fishlegs struggled through a snowdrift, waving his arms wildly. "Stop it! Don't hurt her!"

"Don't hurt _us!_ " Hookfang roared at the same time.

Astrid winced, the two languages colliding in the strange way that they did when heard at the same time. More importantly, she saw the _Skrill_ wince, faltering in midair.

It was a rare wild dragon that understood Norse, and she had no idea why this one did, but she knew they could use it. "Fishlegs, Snotlout, Hookfang, keep talking!" she yelled.

"Why?" Snotlout yelled back, crouching down on Hookfang's neck as a probing web of tiny lightning bolts passed over his head. "This thing iscrazy, talking isn't going to help!"

"Talking is better than being fried," Hookfang retorted as they flew. "That one nearly hit me!"

Astrid winced again, pressing one ear against her cloak and covering the other with her empty hand as she struggled toward the fight, pressing through knee-high snow with every step. It wasn't debilitating, not for her and not for the Skrill, but it was distracting in the worst possible way, and unlike her, the Skrill didn't have hands to put over his or her ears.

"We gonna get under and do the old return ta sender?" Spitelout demanded, following in her wake. "I shoulda brought my spear."

"We might," Astrid confirmed, assuming he meant throwing weapons up at the Skrill's exposed underbelly. It was flying in place, blinking rapidly and striking out with lightning at anything that got too close, but it wasn't watching the ground. Striking from directly underneath might work, and it was the best she could come up with, since the dragon wasn't listening to reason-

"Why are we fighting?" Fishlegs demanded. Meatlug flew low to the ground and landed beside him, and he leaped aboard, complaining all the way. "We just saved your life, we're _friends_ , we don't want to hurt you, we just want to talk!"

The Skrill let out a ear-bursting roar, spun in place, and _vanished_ amidst a massive web of lightning that radiated outward from where it had been. Spitelout yelled a string of truly vile curses, and Astrid would have joined in had she not been so utterly sure that this wasn't even close to over-

Hookfang let out a startled roar as the Skrill popped back into existence right in front of him, exploding in another spherical burst of lightning. The Nightmare fell to the ground, Snotlout somehow still in the saddle, and a single burst of lightning struck Meatlug down.

Astrid anticipated the third blast coming her way and ducked, but she was shocked anyway, her every muscle contracting and spasming unbearably.

When the pain faded, she found herself face-up in the snow, looking up at the crackling visage of the dragon that had brought them all down the moment it decided to do so. It was obvious now what Dagur had meant to recover… not that it mattered.

"Fool," the Skrill hissed in a crackling voice, addressing her directly. "Next time, kill me without any of the trickery. The ransom you intended to take for me will be paid by yours for you, and the alpha will be pleased with me. Now which are you?"

"What?" Astrid rasped.

"Which are you? Darman pack or Hildras pack?" The Skrill picked at her cloak, pulling it off of her and discarding it. "No face marking, so not Darman. No filed teeth, so not Hildras. Blast you humans, you are all equally deaf and featureless."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Astrid gasped, her chest aching with each word, "but I _do_ hear you."

"Don't _talk_ ta the beast," Spitelout growled from somewhere nearby, his voice as faint and pained as hers was.

"Name, tribe, and affiliation in this war," the Skrill demanded, snapping its toothy, angular maw inches from her nose.

"Astrid the Steadfast, Chieftain of Berk, Hairy Hooligan tribe. I know nothing of the war you speak of." She propped herself up on her elbows, doing her best to seem as unruffled as her name would suggest she should be. "My companion thinks you come from the time of Hardra the Many-Headed. You have been frozen in this ice for a long time. We melted you out, at least enough to wake you."

The Skrill glared at her. "I can stop your heart," it threatened. "Squeeze you into oblivion. Take your breath and leave you to suffocate. Speak truth or never speak again."

"Go back to where you broke out from and see how deep in the iceberg it is," Astrid challenged. "See the shattered wreck of a ship encased in that same ice, having clearly sunk and frozen. Question those of my companions who understand you. We came to find what was hidden here, nothing more."

"Hardra was calling himself the Two-Headed last winter, but nobody would call him that in return," the Skrill murmured to itself. "You are not Darman or Hildras. You speak to my kind and travel with those who never would side with either."

A bolt of electricity traveled across the Skrill's chest and out to the side, and Astrid's eyes watered as it _wrenched_ itself away right in front of her. She sat up and rubbed at her eyes, feeling as if they had been pulled around in their sockets.

"Tha' Skrill is _not_ natural," Spitelout grumbled.

"No, it's not," Astrid agreed. She had heard a few legends of Skrill, and they paled in comparison to what she was seeing now. The legends said they breathed lightning from their maws and ate it from the clouds, not that they could fire from anywhere on their body, and no legend so much as mentioned disappearing from existence only to appear somewhere else, or riding the path of its own lightning, or squeezing in a way that physically hurt the eyes to watch.

But in a way, it didn't matter. If their legends had for once undersold a dragon's abilities, or if this Skrill was special even among its own kind, her aims would remain the same. Dagur wanted it, and he would _not_ be allowed to have it, by any means necessary.

Astrid got to her feet, her legs shaky and still occasionally twitching, and offered a hand to Spitelout, who ignored her and struggled to his feet without help. Fishlegs and Meatlug were a short distance to the side, moving about as they recovered from the swift but nonlethal putdown, and neither Snotlout nor Hookfang was anywhere in sight.

A small bolt of lightning threaded up from the ice pit, and the Skrill was out above the iceberg again. It flew normally down to her, and landed heavily.

"How long?" it asked.

"Fishlegs!" Astrid yelled. "How long ago was Hardra the Many-Headed alive?" That was the only reference point she had.

"At least three hundred years, give or take a few decades," Fishlegs called back. "Maybe two hundred and fifty if the records exaggerate the age of his successors, they were notoriously unreliable about that back then. And now, but then too."

The Skrill's neck bowed, and the tip of its grey-scaled face pressed into the snow. "Too long. Much, much too long."

Spitelout put a hand to his sword, and Astrid shot him a hard glare until he took it away again. They were _not_ going to ambush the dragon that had so easily defeated them all, not in its moment of grief. Their tribe had already suffered one grudge from a supernatural creature, and she sure as Hel wasn't going to bring down another on her watch.

"I can offer you a place to recover for as long as you need," she said kindly. "We-"

"I accept, for now," the Skrill buzzed, its voice eerily augmented by the noises of electricity. "Play me false and die twitching."

"Much may have changed in three hundred years, but Viking honor remains intact," Astrid retorted. "You have my word."

"Then answer me honestly," the Skrill hummed, looking her in the eye with an alarmingly focused gaze. A tiny strand of lightning crackled across the surface of its left eye, and Astrid noticed that said eye was a different color, both in iris and pupil, from the other. The right eye was different shades of grey, but the left was pure black on the outside and pale yellow in the middle.

"I will," she said, dismissing the oddity in appearance.

"There are ships with something resembling the insignia Hardra was fond of imagining, only more refined," the Skrill said. "Several, in the ice nearby, separated by a melted channel. Are they Berserkers, and are you with them?"

"They are, and we are not," Astrid said warily. "But just as time has passed, the tribes you know have too. My tribe is nothing like who they were only five years ago, and I can surely say the same for the Berserkers over three hundred. They are not friendly to dragons, and their chieftain– "

"I will make my own assessments," the Skrill snarled. "But for now, my judging will be of you and your people, not them."

"Then we should go," Astrid said. "Before they can come over to the iceberg and force the issue."

The Skrill said nothing, but when it burst into the sky, it waited for them to show the way back to Berk.

O-O-O-O-O

"We're not sure what he wants to do, or where his allegiances will be once he gets a handle on the situation," Astrid said a while later, addressing an anxious crowd. The Great Hall was warm and pleasantly bright compared to the cold, cloudy day outside, but she felt a chill as she spoke, one that did not come from a draft. "But he's not an enemy yet, and we're sure as Hel not going to make him one out of sheer stupidity. Nobody bother him, especially if you don't speak Dragon."

"We decided to call it either Dragonese or Drak," Fishlegs murmured from a corner of the hall, his voice audible over the quiet muttering that always occurred when more than two Vikings were supposed to be listening silently.

"We didn't decide," Meatlug hummed shortly, her voice entwining with the other quiet murmurers and producing a note of discord that bothered Astrid more than it should have. She ignored it, because complaining about something nobody but herself and Fishlegs could hear would be petty, but she was thankful that Meatlug left it at that.

"Wha' if it starts slaughterin' us?" somebody asked belligerently.

"Then fight back, but if you start something I'm going to have to lecture your twitching corpse, and neither of us wants that," Astrid said bluntly. "This Skrill is _insanely_ powerful, and we don't know his limits yet, if he has any. Even if he _was_ definitely an enemy, which he is not, I wouldn't have him attacked, not with all the warriors on Berk." She could easily envision the Skrill laying waste to Berk in moments, flashing from place to place and obliterating all in sight, and that was just based on what she had already seen him do.

"But it's not going to come to fighting," she said firmly. "He is a dragon visiting our island, and it is our custom to treat visitors with respect and _not_ with violence. What's more, he's a potential ally against the Berserkers."

"And a potential ally _of_ the Berserkers, if we can't be better than those sods," Gobber added from the front of the crowd. "E's been out for hundreds o' years, we ought ta be helpin' 'im adjust and makin' 'im appreciate us."

"I've gotten him caught up on Berserker history up to now," Fishlegs volunteered. "There's a lot of betrayal in there, and we come out looking pretty good, so that's a start."

"Did ye twist the facts?" Gobber asked.

"Didn't need to," Fishlegs said, crossing his arms. "And I wouldn't even if I wanted to."

"Where is he _now_?" a woman asked. The murmur of the crowd around her suggested her question was a popular one.

"The top of the mountain, doing nothing as far as we can tell," Astrid explained. "He might be sleeping, or just thinking. In any case, he's not _doing_ anything, and when the storm hits he'll be hunkering down and riding it out like anyone else." She had offered the use of several different shelters and the old training arena, whichever the Skrill liked. And her own hut, but that was a ceremonial thing he couldn't possibly take her up on, being far too big to fit inside.

"And we'll be snug in our huts, warm and cozy," Gobber said happily, waving his hook. "Also, carvin' club, the challenge this time is sea monsters, courtesy o' Fishlegs Ingerman."

"The usual bounty to the best carving," Fishlegs called out over the growing noise of the crowd. Astrid stepped down from the table she had been standing on and made her way to the doors, content in how the news had been taken. There would be confusion and arguing, there always was, but that was always solvable with a few stern words and a reiteration of the same explanation she had just given. Nowhere was it said that Vikings were good listeners.

The massive doors all but swung open when she unlatched them, and the crowd behind her recoiled like a single, massive creature at the cold she had unleashed. She stepped out into the bitter misery, one eye on the sky, and pulled the doors shut behind her.

The clouds did not _worry_ her, not when her people were better equipped to ride out snowstorms than ever before, but it did make her nervous. She wasn't used to having everyone's safety on her shoulders, not yet and maybe not ever, and her own personal comfort was far less certain than the average Viking's. It would be convenient for the storm to pass over without letting loose… but one learned quickly that Devastating Winter was never convenient.

The villagers were all in the Great Hall, and the vast majority of the dragons were napping the day away, sleeping more than even the most lazy Berkian could match. Stormfly had been hard to rouse at all on the coldest days–

And now she was not cold at all. Astrid scowled and stomped her way to her hut, smashing the snow down under her boot with far more force than strictly necessary. She considered going for more firewood, but her stock was already up to the roof, and if she ran out she could burn Hiccup's terrible book and be rid of it.

"Humans never look up, even after all these years."

Astrid had her ax out and pointing at the distinctive voice before she even thought about it. The Skrill was lounging atop one of the huts across from her, most of its body draped down out of sight. The grey eye was turned toward her, staring disdainfully.

"I've become used to dragons on our rooftops," she said. "They are reinforced for safety, but you might be treading on another's territory." Usually, that warning was enough to get dragons off of rooftops they didn't claim for themselves; it was one of the many little tricks she had learned from Fishlegs.

The Skrill seemed nonplussed by that, a tiny spark travelling from its back to the tip of one of its spines, flickering out of existence there. "Territory means little to me. I have never held any."

"Be that as it may," Astrid said, "I want you down from there before you annoy someone who _does_ care about territory."

"I want to get the measure of you," the Skrill said, remaining where it was. "You are smaller and weaker than I am used to, especially in a position of power."

"Off the roof, then we talk," Astrid said coldly. She would not be defied in her own village, not when this Skrill had agreed to not cause any trouble. All else aside, she suspected that appearing weak in front of this dragon would come back to bite her, perhaps literally. It had worked for the Berserkers, who could never be called weak. Plenty of other things, none flattering, but not that.

The Skrill jolted down to the snow-covered pathway in front of her, a tiny arc of lightning preceding it, and Astrid barely closed her eyes in time to avoid the eye-wrenching visual.

"But you learn quickly," the Skrill hissed, now right in front of her.

"Learn quick or die quicker," Astrid said dismissively. "That's always the way of things."

"I know that _very_ well," the Skrill agreed. "It is why I am here now."

"Because you want to learn about us, or because you were learning about the Berserkers before you got frozen in the iceberg?" Astrid asked, genuinely unsure which the Skrill meant.

"Both," the Skrill hummed. "Neither. I have seen some of your dragons. They are fat and content."

"When did you see anyone?" Astrid asked. She had escorted the Skrill straight to the top of the mountain, and as far as she knew it had only come down upon seeing her walking through the village.

"Earlier," the Skrill said cryptically. "From what I have heard, you are adequate. No more, no less, with a far heavier touch than many would like and an isolationist leaning."

"Isolationist?" Astrid had been called quite a few things, especially in the early days when half the village didn't particularly want her as Chieftain, but that didn't sound like anything her people would say. For one thing, she doubted more than a handful knew the word at all. _She_ only knew it because Fishlegs and Meatlug were ridiculously thorough in teaching her the dragon equivalent of _every_ word they knew, not just the useful ones.

"All the power you could want, and no attempts at expansion, not even to unoccupied islands in the area," the Skrill hummed. "Not even to the vast wilds of this very island, where there is room for another nest or even two if you plan wisely."

"I and my people are happy with what we have, and our energies are better spent preserving and refining it, not expanding," Astrid said coldly. She had to hold back a shiver as a fitful gust of wintery wind blew past, and decided on a whim to keep walking, turning her back on the Skrill in the process.

Her half-thought-through bluff paid off when the Skrill followed behind, actually walking on its limbs for the first time she had seen. "That is a very pacifistic way to approach safety," it said.

"I'm sure it seems that way," she said. The grey eye was looking her way, but she refrained from looking back at it, keeping her eyes forward. "But I'm sure every approach short of open war seems weak to you. What were you doing with the Berserkers, anyway? How did you end up in the ice?"

"I am not entirely sure how we ended up frozen," the Skrill admitted. "The last thing I remember is an ambush by an unknown ship, under bright, sunny skies."

"And you were on the deck of a ship," Astrid said. "Why was that?" She would much rather hear the Skrill's story than be probed on her own thoughts and methods, lest what she said make its way to the Berserkers someday. An uninformed enemy was better than a knowledgeable one.

"I should start from the beginning," the Skrill murmured. "But you would freeze to death out here before I finished."

"I'll be fine," Astrid said. "We're headed to my home, anyway. Just give me the important parts."

"What do you know of my kind?" the Skrill asked.

"Nothing," Astrid said candidly.

"That will make this harder," the Skrill sighed, sounding incredibly put-upon. "Suffice to say we wander with the weather, never staying in one place long. I split from my pack as a fledgling, wandered into a place in the clouds, a mountain peak that had been hollowed, and struck at exactly the wrong thing, trapping myself inside."

"I'm with you so far," Astrid said, intrigued. She couldn't see how any of this connected to the present day, but what sounded like either caves or ruins in the heights of some far-away mountain was interesting enough on its own.

"My power was all I had," the Skrill continued as they walked. "I struck at many things, hoping to break a way to the outside, and eventually found something that ate my power and returned it tenfold. It took and gave, and the stone came to life around me, shifting to open a path out at my command."

"Now I'm lost," Astrid admitted. "Stones obeyed your orders?" She was getting shivers down her spine that had nothing to do with the weather or the literally hair-raising dragon plodding along beside her. Talk of strange things in forgotten places reminded her of the _last_ unnatural creature to set foot on Berk, though she knew next to nothing about how that one had come into being. It was of the unknown, just like what the Skrill described, and that was enough.

"Yes, and they continued to obey me whenever I returned in the following seasons," the Skrill said. "They began to speak, like a child learning at first, and imparted knowledge I will never share with any other being." A flash of electricity had the Skrill suddenly walking on her other side, the yellow and black eye staring at her. "And when I understood enough, a stone to make part of myself."

"So not all Skrill are like you," Astrid ventured, thoroughly intimidated, though she hoped it didn't show.

"None are, and none ever will be," the Skrill confirmed. "It was an ailing place, falling into disrepair, and I lacked the scores of lifetimes needed to learn enough to fix it. When I had gleaned all I could use, I sealed it up and left for good."

"To go join the Berserkers?" she asked, still not seeing how any of this was connected.

"To see what could be done about replacing what I had used and failed to preserve," the Skrill corrected her. "I wish to make something that lasts, after seeing the power of knowledge built upon and not lost with every generation. To make my own sort of living stones, or the start of them. But for that I needed willing help and a place that would never be threatened. Searching for such a place led me to the Berserkers and what lay beneath their island."

"What?"

"I cannot say," the Skrill said calmly. "Not for any reason. I swore an oath. Regardless, it was the perfect place, well-suited to my needs. There were humans there too, and I saw them as a possible boon, not a downside. Some of the young ones of my pack came with me, and we made peace, of a sort."

"Just like that," Astrid murmured.

"Peace by slaughtering anyone they fought, avoiding their attacks, and then after a time submitting to their chains and whips," the Skrill said idly. "It was a peace of subjugation, but only for a time, since I cannot be held." It flickered, and was suddenly atop a roof far ahead of Astrid without even a bolt of electricity to herald its arrival. "We were granted more and more freedom the longer we fought for them without issue, and attitudes were already softening. One short human generation to set us into their culture, then a generation of maneuvering to put us equal to them, and a third to establish my place of progress and bring their best minds into the fold. Another two of your generations past that would see me dead of age, but I would have successors to build upon what I had started."

"Did it work?" Astrid asked, caught up in the story. She still didn't understand what the Skrill meant to build, but she got the sense it didn't fully know itself.

"It _was_ working," the Skrill snarled, remaining atop the building as she neared. "Then I woke up to being buried in ice, all my work likely gone and a different world in its place."

The silence of the snow-bound village around them seemed a little more desolate than it had before, at least to Astrid. To make something, to have plans, and then to lose it all in an instant… It was a familiar feeling, and not a good one.


End file.
